Rehabilitating the Wolf
by myoptic recollections
Summary: Stubborn veterinarian Laura Karl isn't prepared for the huge wolf that shows up at her doorstep, injured. But she is even less prepared for the line of angry Native Americans that show up at her door, demanding it back. Laura has never been one to give up easily, though, and she hates mysteries.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Laura shut off the engine on her car with a loud thump. She made a mental note to get it fixed as she grabbed her purse and groceries and climbed out of the car. She had arrived at both home and work, having just moved into an apartment over her new clinic. It was small, but it was her first real place. She had been here less than a month, but it already felt like home.

She began mentally adding other chores to her to do list: She needed to put out an ad and fliers about her clinic. Contact some of her old patients. Call her landlord and ask about that leaky faucet. Get new paint for the living room-the thought of that pea green disgusted her. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she almost bumped into the animal lying on her doorstep.

It was a wolf. A gigantic wolf.

She dropped one of her bags and stumbled back several steps. Laura was not a screamer, but she was definitely a heavy gasper. She fumbled about for her phone, her hands shaking badly. Who to call when a wolf the size of a horse shows up? The police? The army?

She stopped, her professional curiosity overwhelming her. This wolf was far too large. And, she realized belatedly as she caught her breath, it was covered in blood and there was more of it leading away. She stopped short, horrified. Was it dead? Was this a terrible prank?

After a long moment, its sides rose and fell heavily.

Laura snapped into action. She needed to get it inside to a clean surface. Its wounds needed to be disinfected and dressed. It needed to be tranquilized so it didn't attack her. It—he, she corrected after a quick check—needed to be noted to authorities as a wild animal in a residential area.

Laura ran to the business next door and grabbed two thirds of the Pizza Brothers, who were just opening for the day and looked bemused by her arrival until they saw the huge creature. One of them crept up to touch it and she heard him whisper to the other, "How much do you think that's worth?"

"It's a wild animal; it's priceless," Laura snapped. "Don't touch him until I get back," she ordered.

She ran upstairs and returned with an old blanket and some sedatives. With some difficulty, they rolled the beast onto the blanket and hauled him inside to the examining room. Almost immediately afterward, her teenage receptionist Katie walked in and gasped loudly, stopping mid-text.

"Cancel my morning appointments," Laura said briskly, without greeting her. "I'll be in room three. "

"Do you need any help with it? Looks like a lot of work," one of the Pizza Brothers—Tony maybe?—offered.

Laura didn't have time to worry if he had ulterior motives or if his lack of experience would be a problem. "I've got it, thanks for your help," she said quickly, washing her hands and rummaging for plastic gloves and a hair tie. Where were all of her hair ties lately? She looked up and he was still standing there, watching her. "Thanks," she repeated in dismissal.

He finally nodded and left.

She eyeballed the amount of sedatives he would need, and stuck the syringe into the animal's neck. It was unconscious now, but she didn't need him waking up while she was sewing up his legs. The wolf had deep cuts on his back thigh, and smaller lacerations elsewhere on his body. At first glance she had thought one of his ribs was broken, but once he was up on the table it seemed fine. She cleaned and sanitized the biggest wound and then set to work stitching it up. It was a fairly clean cut; no claw marks, no bits of metal. She wondered what this wolf had fought.

Part way through working, the wolf picked its head up and gazed at her sleepily. Laura felt a brief stab of panic; the amount of sedatives she had given him should have kept him out for the whole day, not an hour. She was in the middle of stitching up his side, though. She didn't have time to get any more sedatives and she couldn't have him moving. She held the wound closed with one hand awkwardly, and stroked his back like a big dog. "There, there, you're safe now. I've got you, and I'm going to fix you up, hmm?" She continued to pet him, and started humming a lullaby. She felt utterly ridiculous, but Dr. Freeman swore it worked for his dogs when she had done her observations there.

The wolf slowly settled under her hands, resting his big head back down on his paws and yawning. Laura didn't dare let out a breath; she quickly went back to work, humming all the while.

By the time she was done, he was sleeping again.

* * *

The next day, the wolf was healing up nicely when Laura arrived at work. She didn't have long to check on him, though; she'd had to cancel a few appointments yesterday and her secretary had unhelpfully scheduled them _all_ to come in today. She was incredibly busy for most of the morning with her usual crowd: two cats, a woman from Port Angeles with a turtle, and a man that came in after his guinea pig swallowed several coins.

"Laura?" she heard Katie call from the hallway. "You have a visitor?"

Laura huffed in annoyance. Katie was supposed to tell them that she was busy with a patient when she was actually busy with a patient. That was why she had a secretary. She rolled her eyes and looked at Mrs. Carter apologetically. "Sorry, this will just take a moment."

Outside in the waiting room, she found tow huge men waiting. Laura looked around for an animal and found none. "Hi, I'm Dr. Karl. What can I do for you?" she asked briskly.

The taller of the two men stepped forward, a bit too close. He had a friendly smile on, but there was also an aura of authority around him. This man was powerful, and he was used to being obeyed. "Hello, I'm Sam Ulley," he said with a firm handshake. He wanted to intimidate her, or impress her, she decided. "I'm from the La Push Reservation down the road. We heard you had some wolf trouble here yesterday."

Laura raised her eyebrows. She hadn't called anyone about the wolf yet. How had they known? "I have an injured wolf in the back, yes," she said tentatively.

"Well thank you. See, he's actually my wolf, but he got away from me two days ago." He put some weird emphasis on "my wolf." "I'll pay you for your services, and take him now if I can."

She pulled herself up. "Wolves are wild animals, not pets, Mr. Ulley. Unless you have some sort of proof, a license of some sort, that says that you own him, then I cannot transfer custody."

He raised his eyebrows, as if shocked to be turned down. "Surely you don't ask that of all of your patients. He's no different than a stray dog."

She frowned. "He's very different than a stray dog. I'm not even sure if Washington state law would allow you to own a wolf. It is a wild animal." Neither of the men seemed phased by these problems. "Either way, I'd need to keep him for a few days to watch for infection. He was very severely injured when he showed up at my door."She peered up at them. "Would you know why 'your' wolf had such deep lacerations on his leg and side? Or why he was in Forks?"

Ulley shrugged. "He probably got into a fight with a bear, another wolf maybe. When can I pick him up?"

She was annoyed by how casual he seemed to be about the potentially fatal injuries his "pet" had sustained. "When you can prove legal ownership," she responded firmly.

"Can we see him?" the shorter man finally asked. He was barely more than a boy, twenty at most.

There was something very sincere in the question that Laura couldn't deny, even though she had another patient waiting. She silently opened the door to the back room where the wolf was sleeping.

"He's in a cage," the shorter man observed with a frown.

"Wild animal," Laura repeated for the millionth time. "I can't put someone's pet parakeet back here and find out that the wolf wanted a snack."

"He's not-" the shorter one started to protest, before stopping himself. Instead, he moved over to the cage and somehow fit his hand in through the bars to touch the wolf. Laura felt a touch of remorse at seeing that, but had to stick to her morals, to procedure, to the law.

"We're coming back for him," Ulley said in a final tone. His companion stood up reluctantly, recognizing the unsaid order, and they left.

Not three hours later, Laura had her second unexpected visitors of the day. They were two middle-aged Native Americans, both quiet and unassuming.

"Hello, my name is Billy Black, and this is Sue Clearwater," said the man with a polite smile. "We wanted to discuss the wolf you found."

"What is there to discuss?"Laura asked shortly. The amount of people coming in and meddling was making this wild animal more trouble than he was worth.

"What are your plans with him?" the older man responded patiently.

"Standard procedure is that I report it to regional wildlife authorities and follow their recommendations." She didn't say what those recommendations could be, she was avoiding thinking about it.

"Have you reported him yet?" Sue asked quietly. She looked very worried about the possibility.

She shook her head. "It's a lot of paperwork, and if I find out that he has a good, responsible, legal home already, then I may…overlook procedure for the moment."

Sue smiled serenely. "We take very good care of our wolves down in La Push, and I can assure you that if anyone comes forward to claim him, then they would be trustworthy."

Laura tried to contain her skeptical look.

"We aren't the regional authorities, but we are on the Council of Elders on the reservation, and you understand that we like to be kept aware of incidents like these in the area," Billy cut in smoothly. "If anything like this ever occurs again, we'd like you to feel comfortable contacting us. We have a local…law enforcement unit that sometimes does animal rehabilitation, and we would be happy to take any unclaimed animals and set them free in the our forests."

She nodded without smiling. "I'll be sure to keep you in mind," she promised. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I have an appointment waiting."

Sue smiled brightly. "Excellent. We'll just leave our number with your secretary, dear. It was lovely meeting you."

Laura couldn't believe this. It was all clearly bald-faced lies. What kind of police force also rehabilitated wildlife? Why was everyone in this town after one wolf?

And then there was the wolf itself. It was almost twice the size of any wolf that she'd ever seen. She was far from a wolf expert, but she knew that wolves shouldn't be as large as horses. It was only by chance that she had a cage large enough to contain him, but she was worried that it was a bit too small.

The next day, Laura had her third wolf-seekers. These ones came in nice black suits with shiny sunglasses and even shinier government badges. "Doctor Karl," the first one said with a hard smile. He didn't introduce himself. "We heard that you had had some wolf trouble up in this area recently."

Someone felt off about them to Laura. She didn't want to tell them about the wolf that was sleeping in her back room. She didn't even want them standing in her waiting room. "The wolves are native to the area. We haven't had any cases of attacks," she answered honestly. "Regional Wildlife authorities would know more about it than I would."

They both scanned her waiting room, as if looking for anything suspicious. "Do you mind if we take a look around?"

Laura frowned. "Yes, actually, I would. Which department did you say you were from?"

They shook their heads. "Surely you don't have anything to hide back there, though?"

Laura raised an eyebrow. "No I don't. However, you'll have to get a warrant if you want to see it. Thanks for your time, gentlemen." She ushered them out the door.

"Who was that?"Katie asked.

"No one," Laura said. "If anyone else comes in wanting to talk to me about a wolf, tell them I'm busy."

Laura was doing her paperwork in her office late at night when she heard a soft noise in the other room. It happened all the time; the animals that stayed overnight were constantly pacing and squawking and pawing and rattling. But something made that noise in particular stand out. Laura felt drawn to the next room; something was happening in there, and her instincts never lied. If nothing else, she could check on the animals.

She slid open the office door and slipped into the hallway. It was far too quiet in the back room. She had the wolf in there and Mrs. Carter's elderly greyhound, but it was completely silent. She stilled herself and stopped to wonder if she should have a weapon. She was here alone, at night, and it could be anything in there.

Part of her balked at that thought. This was _her _practice that they broke into. _Her _territory. And she would show who or whatever it was in there that Laura Karl was a force to be reckoned with.

Laura threw the door open, and it hit the opposite wall with a bang, startling the two men that were in there, leaned over the cage with the wolf. Part of Laura's righteous anger fled at the sight of them: they were both huge and muscled and definitely Native American. Part of Laura was annoyed though. Who did Sam Ulley think he was?

"What the hell are you doing in my office?" Laura gritted out. She grabbed a board behind the door, meant to become part of the molding in the examination room but now makeshift weapon. She held it over her shoulder like a baseball bat, stepping farther into the room. "That wolf is a wild animal. Get away from it this instant."

They both straightened up, but neither looked alarmed, more just annoyed too. Standing straight, they loomed over the short veterinarian, but she refused to back down.

"Look, we asked for the wolf back, but you wouldn't give him up. We already told you; he's our wolf; he's completely trained. We'll pay you for the treatment, but we just want him back," the one in front said authoritatively. "You have no right to kidnap this creature."

Laura glared at him. The nerve! "I already told Ulley that he has to prove that he owned it for me to hand him over! For all I know, you're poachers after his skin!" She hefted the flimsy wood in her hands threateningly, but he didn't flinch. "I called the cops. They're on their way here," Laura bluffed quickly.

"You're lying," It was the second man who spoke, his voice quiet and sure.

Laura contained the shiver that went down her spine at the sound of it and turned to him, ready to yell.

Their eyes locked.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed/enjoyed the first chapter!

Chapter Two

"So then," Paul laughs as he begins recounting their story back on his and Rachel's porch. "He gets one look at her and gets that kinda high look Jared has when he sees Kim. The really dopey one. And I'm freaking out because poor Quil is still trapped there in a cage-"

"Embry imprinted on the vet?" "No way!" "What'd he do?"

Paul waved his free hand, the one that wasn't holding a beer, at his rapt audience until they settled down. "He just stares at her stupidly, and she's off yelling at him and me about breaking and entering and animal custody. And I'm trying to figure out how to get Quil out when he's passed out. And I figure we can just make a run past her pretty easy, and it's not like she knows our name or anything, and then Emb has to open his mouth…"

* * *

"Hi, I'm Embry," the second one said, still giving her an amazed look. What the heck had just happened? Was he on drugs? Multiple personality disorder? "What's your name?"

Laura glared at his outstretched hand and turned back to the first one, who had opened the wolf's cage. "I told you he's dangerous! That's a wild animal, and he's hurt!" she screeched. She finally swung the wood at Paul, and it splintered like matchsticks on his broad back.

Paul whirled around, growling, but suddenly Embry was standing between them, crouched protectively. Laura scooted backwards, not wanting to get in the middle of their fight. The two men were silently staring one another down, and neither looked like they would back down. Laura circled cautiously around them until she was between Paul and the wolf, and she carefully shut the cage door again.

At the sound, Paul whirled around, but there was no Embry in between them. Laura planted herself in between the invaders and the animal. "He's under my protection now. Either get some proof that you own him, or get the hell out of my office," Laura said firmly.

Paul looked down at her, as if emphasizing the fact that he could just swat her aside with one hand if he needed to, before he nodded. "We'll be back tomorrow," he muttered, turning around. He grabbed Embry's collar and dragged him out behind him.

* * *

"So do you have proof that you own a wolf?" Brady asked Paul.

Paul grinned. "Nah, but Claire does," he said, tipping his beer in her direction.

Claire looked surprised. "I do?"

Paul nodded at her hand. "You've got the ring, which is as good as owning him. We'll just make it official with some forged documents. I know a couple guys in Port Angeles who'll do the job."

* * *

The wolf's wounds had healed much faster than Laura was expecting. When she changed the bandage the next morning, the wound was almost completely closed up. She made a note to take out the stitches later. The one thing that was really bothering her was that he was far too complacent. He barely ate, even when today she had brought in leftover steak. He was only drinking half as much water as she estimated an animal of his size should be taking in. And she hadn't used sedatives on him since the first night, and those wore off halfway through the operation. But all he did was sleep all day. He should be far more energetic.

Suddenly, the wolf picked up his head and sniffed the air. In a moment he rolled to his feet and let out a loud howl.

Laura jumped back, startled.

"Laura? The wolf's owner is here," Katie called.

Laura rolled her eyes. Not Ulley again, she thought and she walked down the hall.

"Hi."The girl standing in the waiting room was a bit pale under her naturally tan skin. "I'm here for Qu-the wolf." Behind her loomed one of the guys from last night, but thankfully not the one that she had hit with a board.

"I thought Sam Ulley owned him?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Sam's my…brother. Here's my license." She handed over an official looking-document from the state of Washington certifying her ownership of a large cannus lupine, and a driver's license for her id. Laura raised her eyebrows. The girl was nineteen and had a wolf for a pet? What?

On the other hand, the document looked official enough, and Laura would prefer for the wolf to go back to a home of some sort than send it to the wild life officials. She had an inkling of what they would do to a suspiciously large, possibly dangerous wolf found within city limits, and it wasn't something that Laura was comfortable thinking about.

Silently she handed the paperwork back and motioned them to the backroom. "He's been healing up quite nicely—very quickly, actually."She was surprised to see that the wolf was still standing when they opened the door. It was the most energy she had seen him exert for the past three days. She went into doctor mode and started rattling off instructions. "His caloric intake should be higher than the past couple of days. He's barely eaten anything here, so make sure he gets in a solid two meals. Preferably high in protein and iron."

The girl was on her knees in front of the cage, her arms stuck through the bars to pet the animal. She was crying, which Laura uncomfortably decided to ignore and turned to guy that came in with her, who was watching Laura with rapt attention. "I'm going to give you some antibiotics for the next three weeks or so. They should be taken orally once a day, with food. You're going to want to watch the bandages. They need to be changed every two days or once they get dirty. Make sure he doesn't scratch the stitches, or they'll scar." She stopped to think. Had she missed anything?

She handed the prescription over to the guy—Embry? They stood in awkward silence for a minute, the weight of last night's events heavy. In the light of day, she noticed that he was huge. Maybe the adrenaline of last night had stopped her from calculating how much larger they both were, but her head only reached his collar bone.

"What do we owe you?" he asked finally.

Laura waved the offer away. "You'll have to pay for the prescription when you pick it up. The care's on the house. I'm just glad someone came for him and I didn't have to call authorities."

He shook his head firmly. "I insist. You've looked after him for three days. You…saved his life. We are in your debt." He paused. "And we did sort of break in last night and you didn't call the cops on us. How can we make it up to you?"

"Take better care of your wolf," Laura said gruffly. "I don't know what happened the other night, I probably don't want to know, but if he ends up in here again looking like he did the other night I really will call wildlife control." She stared at him seriously, wanting to make her point. "Wolves are not pets. They need lots of exercise and fresh air and constant stimulation. If I get any word about animal abuse or improper care from you guys I will make sure he gets a new home."

"We would never hurt him." The soft protest came from the girl, who had opened the cage door and was now almost wrapped around the wolf protectively.

"Don't worry, we'll keep a closer eye on him, make sure he doesn't run off again," Embry said pointedly.

The wolf whimpered.

Claire stood up slowly, wiping her face with an embarrassed smile. The wolf nudged her leg with his head, and she grinned widely and scratched his ear.

Laura watched the interaction with interest. The wolf, a huge predator, was really acting like a normal pet. And they seemed to have a good relationship.

Claire produced a collar and a leash from somewhere in her purse. The wolf looked ridiculous with it on, but Laura would be the last one to speak up about that. With a smile and a wave, the girl led the wolf out of the room. Laura was pleased to see that he was barely limping.

Embry, still beside her, cleared his throat. "That was a serious offer. We'll pay you for your time. That wolf is…very important to us all." He paused. "We can never repay you for saving his life."

"Yeah, and what was he doing in the next town over, bleeding out?" Laura finally snapped. "Why the hell would you break into my office at night to get him?"

Embry looked down. "Like I said, send us a bill; we can't thank you enough."

Laura nodded stonily. "I'm glad he's ok. They seem very…close."

He was staring at her. She shifted, uncomfortable, and moved towards the door. Just because the break in last night hadn't ended badly, it could have. Laura was not foolish enough to remain alone with the man who had broken the lock on her door. Who knew what else he was capable of? Last night she had barely slept after they left. She had kept all of the lights and the tv on and sat up late, unable to relax fully.

He coughed awkwardly. "Paul-the, uh, other guy from last night—he feels bad about what happened too. He's a carpenter and he wants to come fix your lock. Whenever is convenient for you." He seemed to shrink under her calculating gaze. "Or just send us the bill. The La Push Council will make sure we get it."

She looked up quickly, surprised. "Do you work with them? On rehabilitation of wolves?"

Embry raised his eyebrows. "I've worked with the wolves a little," he said cautiously.

"May I come visit your operation?" Laura was curious about what was going on down the road. Solely professional curiosity, of course. If there was an illegal wolf training operation happening right under her nose, she was duty bound to report it.

He hesitated. "I'll have to check with the council."

Laura smiled. "No need, they already visited yesterday. In fact, I think I have their number. I'm sure they'll be fine with it."

The man smiled, a bit uncomfortably. "Well, who am I to say no to the council? Does Saturday work for you?"

She nodded. "Sounds great." She held the door open, ready for this conversation to be over.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name…" He held out his hand expectantly.

"I'm Dr. Karl," Laura replied coolly. She pretended to not see his hand and motioned him through the door. "Thanks for picking the wolf up. I'll see you Saturday."

He got the hint and nodded at her before leaving.

Laura leaned against the wall for a moment, collecting herself. She had thought she would be scared to see one of them again, and yet she felt no fear, only curiosity. Where did they get a wolf that large? How was it so well trained? And why were they willing to break into her clinic to get it back?

Embry felt a smile grow on his face as he left the veterinary clinic in Forks. Claire and Quil were waiting in the cab of his truck, firmly wrapped around one another. He was glad to see Quil utilizing the pair of pants that Embry left him there. Embry banged twice on the windows before entering.

"How are you doing?" he asked, clasping Quil on the shoulder.

Quil grasped his forearm. "I'm good. Really, what are the odds I would end up outside a veterinarian's place?"

Embry chuckled. "Yeah, pretty lucky."

"So how mad is Sam?"

Embry snorted. "Legendary. You might hear Billy Black tell this story around a campfire some night. Assuming Sam let's you live, of course. There's a meeting tonight."

"Ah, fun," Quil said drily. Out of the corner of his eye Embry could see his friend was paying more attention to Claire's hand then Embry's warnings. "I hope Sam doesn't mess with that woman that took me in."

"He won't," Embry said quickly and certainly.

Quil looked over curiously, surprised by the response. "How long was I over there for? Shouldn't they check that she didn't put a video of me online or call National Geographic or anything?"

"I'll deal with that."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

On Saturday morning, Embry showed up at her door with a paper bag and an apologetic smile. "So the elders said they don't want any visitors at the rehabilitation building," he said to her questioning expression. "They think it might be dangerous to have spectators. Loud noises and whatnot scare the animals. But I brought breakfast, and if you want, Paul can come fix your door."

Laura frowned. "There's a picnic table out front," she suggested finally. Something in the back of her head was preventing her from inviting him in. Something about him, the way he was so large, the way he carried himself, the way his eyes swept the room, spoke of dangerousness. He was dangerous, even just standing on her porch wearing sandals and a beat up t shirt.

Embry nodded and found the picnic table. It was between Laura's front door and the Pizza Brothers', so it had the unfortunate side effect of smelling like pizza and garlic all the time. He folded his body into the bench somehow and started pulling out bagels. He brought at least half a dozen, making Laura wonder if other people were coming too. She cautiously sat on the bench across from him, a bit unsure of what was going on.

"So can you at least tell me about the program? Or the wolves in the area? I had never seen any near as large."

He paused from taking out an assortment of cream cheeses. "Wolves that size are particular to the Pacific Northwest," he said finally. "But I have to ask that you not report them anywhere. The wolves are…sacred to my tribe. We are their descendants, actually. The elders are concerned that if word got out about them, then the reservation and the national park would be overrun with scientists, poachers, tourists."

Laura nodded carefully. So that was why they were all so determined to get that one wolf back. Part of her was very impressed in that one tribe's success in keeping the wolves secret for so long. Things like that did not stay hidden in the age of the internet and digital photography. She wondered what they would have done if she had refused to give it back.

Looking at Embry, cramped in the picnic bench and carefully tearing open a cream cheese packet, she could believe that the Quileutes were descended from wolves.

"Is this the part where you kill me because I know too much?" she asked lightly.

Embry chuckled and shook his head. "Billy Black and Sue Clearwater spoke for you, so I'll let you go with a warning. _ This time._"

She honestly wasn't sure if that was a joke or not, so settled for a polite smile.

A beat up old Chevy truck pulled into the parking lot and another mountain of a man climbed out. She recognized him as the one she had hit with a wooden molding. Great.

Embry must have noticed her expression because he said, "That's Paul. His bark's worse than his bite. He's just here to fix your door."

Paul pulled a large tool kit out of the bed of his truck and sent them a wave. Apparently he was content with not talking to her either. He circled around the building to her back door and a few minutes later they could hear some sort of pounding going on.

"Don't worry; he's really good at what he does. He built his own house." Embry seemed to think that was a high enough recommendation and began devouring a bagel. "Also, I brought one of those moldings that Paul…broke."

Laura contained a snort as his diplomatic statement.

"That's very thoughtful of you," she said instead. "But really, you guys don't need to go through all the trouble…"

"Dr. Karl, we broke into your house and your business. It's the least we could do." He held her gaze seriously for a moment. "Besides, your back door was ridiculously easy to break. You needed a new one anyway."

"Ahh, well, I appreciate it."

Embry pushed three of the bagels her way. "Appreciate my bagels, too, then," he said lightly.

She took a blueberry bagel with a smile. They listened to the pounding out back for a moment. "So how did you end up working with wolves?" she asked, curious.

He shrugged. "It's kind of a profession you're born into. I do love it though. Wolves are some of the most loyal and intelligent creatures." He stopped to polish off his second bagel. "How did you get into being a vet?"

She glanced back at her clinic fondly. "I always loved animals. My dog got hit by a car when I was eight. We took her in to the vet, and they patched her right up: splinted her leg, stitched up some scratches, good as new. I always knew that was what I wanted to do too."

"Well, you fixed up our wolf pretty good."

She blushed a bit. "My first lupine surgery. I had no idea what I was doing," she confessed. "I didn't give him enough anesthesia, and he woke up halfway through. I was terrified he would bit my arm off."

"First time for everything, right? They don't make you do a wolf before you leave vet school? Seems like it should be part of the basics," he said lightly. Then he grew quiet, looking out past the Pizza Brothers' dumpster to the woods. "There are lots of dangerous things in those forests, but the wolves aren't one of them. I promise."

She was a bit skeptical of this guarantee, and picked at her bagel. This was going pleasantly enough, and Laura didn't want to ruin it by lecturing him of the inherent dangers of wild animals, even trained ones. "If there's scarier stuff out there than horse-sized wolves, I probably wouldn't want to run into them."

"You won't, I'm sure," he said certainly. "Sorry again that you couldn't come see more of the wolves. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to sneak you in at some point later." She shot him a curious glance. "You're small, they'll never see you," he joked, which didn't answer her confusion. Laura thought this was a one-time thing, but he was talking like they would be friends from now on.

She was about to ask him about it when Paul came back around the building. "'S'all set," he grunted in their direction.

"Thank you!" Laura yelled to his back as he got into his truck and drove away. "Well, then, thanks for breakfast," she said to Embry.

"Anytime, Karl."

She grimaced. "You can call me Laura, I guess."

"I rather like the name Karl, actually." He sent her a grin as he hauled his huge frame up. She noticed with shock that he had eaten all of the remaining bagels as they had talked. Five bagels. "I'll see you around, Laura."

She like the way he said her name, like a promise. She smiled at him and waved as he climbed into his own truck. She turned to walk back into her apartment.

"Laura!"

She turned; Embry had rolled down his window to shout at her. "Would you want to get some coffee sometime?"

She was nodding before she even had time to really consider the proposition. "I close early Tuesday nights," she offered.

"It's a date," he called back.

She smiled and waved again before making it into her apartment. Her heart was beating way too quickly in excitement. She shook her head, trying to calm down.

She circled around to the back door to see what Paul had done. He hadn't been here that long; she expected to see her old lock pounded back into shape. Instead, she found a solid new door hung where her old one had been. A set of keys was hanging in the lock, which she had to admit looked more formidable than her former one. How did he have time to put up a whole new door? How did he even get the door in without her seeing it? She swung it open and shut experimentally; it glided silently and shut cleanly. After a moment of looking she found her old door leaning against the Pizza Brothers' dumpster.

Maybe Paul was just an extremely competent repairman. But something about the two men from La Push just seemed…unusual, and this was just one more case of it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Their date on Tuesday went really well. Surprisingly well, actually. Laura couldn't remember the last time she dated someone before vet school, and she fretted over what to wear and what to say. She finally settled on jeans and a nice shirt, and was absurdly relieved when Embry showed up also in jeans and a button down.

He gave her a warm smile and opened the door of his truck for her, his behavior soon putting her at ease. He was so laid back. The conversation flowed naturally between them about Paul's carpentry skills, the ongoing construction projects in Laura's apartment, the merits of doing interior construction by oneself. Embry had a lot of good advice about the final interior design needs of her clinic; there were still a few rooms that needed molding and painting and shelving. Laura jokingly demanded to know where he got all of this carpentry knowledge, and he admitted with a bit of embarrassment that he had once wrecked one of the walls in his mother's house, though it wasn't clear how that happened.

Before she knew it, they were the only ones in the café, and the employees were giving them dirty looks. Laura pulled Embry outside, and before she knew it, was inviting him inside, purely to get his knowledgeable opinion on that plaster in the hallway, she told herself.

"You want some coffee?" she offered, leading him to her office. She had a beat up old couch in there that had been sitting on the street with a free sign on it.

Embry looked surprised. "We just came from coffee," he pointed out.

Laura shrugged. "I live on it. I'm pretty sure if you cut me I'd bleed espresso. Decaf?" She even had a spare coffee maker in her office so she wouldn't have to go to her kitchen upstairs in caffeine emergencies. She started measuring some grounds into a filter.

"Sure, yeah." He seemed more interested in examining the pictures on her desk. "Is this your brother?"

"Yeah, he's a few years older. That mountain's in western Washington near where my folks live. He's in Port Angeles."

She was paying more attention to the coffee than what he was doing, so she was surprised to hear a thump behind her. "Sorry," Embry said with a sheepish expression when she turned and saw one of her desk drawers on the ground. He did look like it was an accident. "I was testing out your chair."

She felt a rush of panic when she saw which drawer it was. "I got it!" she said quickly, rushing to pick it up, but he was already there, gathering up the spilled papers and pens. He tried to arrange them back in the drawer.

He froze when he saw the small shotgun under a notebook. "What's this?" His voice had become weirdly quiet.

She shrugged, a bit embarrassed. "I was a little freaked out after the whole break in. My brother bought it for me. It makes him feel better, at least."

She didn't mention how many times she got up in the middle of the night to check all of the locks. She didn't tell him that she had slept with all of the lights on last night.

Embry nodded stonily before clearing his throat. "We—ah—I'm sure you won't have any more trouble."

Laura frowned. "I'll probably keep it, all the same."

He slid the drawer back into her desk carefully. "Of course." He looked around quickly. "Where was that hole in the wall?"

She stepped back a bit and pointed out one of the holes in the drywall. "I figure it'll be fine with a bit of plaster."

Something was broken between them in that moment, and they could both feel it. Laura wanted to fix it, but wasn't sure what had happened. Embry nodded stiffly at the holes and gave her directions to a good hardware store nearby. They moved awkwardly around one another, and when he left for the night, Laura stared after him, puzzled.

* * *

Her friend Carrie came over for a belated housewarming that weekend. Carrie was busy studying for the law school admissions tests, and having just taken it, finally had some free time for her best friend. She arrived at the door with a bottle of champagne and caffeine born excitement. The tour of the clinic last half an hour, with Carrie being absurdly interested in everything, from the waiting room chairs to the cabinets in the backroom.

"I can't believe it, Lore! You're out on your own!" she kept saying. After an equally-thorough investigation of the upstairs apartment, they settled into the kitchen and toasted their respective successes.

Nearly an hour of gossip later, Laura was feeling decidedly tipsy.

"Aisha had her second baby a few weeks ago, did you hear?" Carrie was saying. "A girl. She's a chubby little tomato."

"Good for her." Laura swirled her drink around. They had moved on to wine. "She must be happy."

"Bull!" her friend declared. "You're disapproving so hard right now; you're just too polite to say it."

Laura made a face. "She's so young! Once you have a baby, that's like your life. Could you imagine either of us with a child right now? A child?" she asked, as if the very concept was ridiculous.

Carrie stuck her tongue out at her. "Babyhater."

Laura didn't bother arguing the point. It was well trod territory between the two of them, having been friends since high school.

"So whatever happened after that break in?"

Laura bit her lip. "It's kind of a weird story…" And then she proceeded to tell her best friend about the door replacement, the coffee date, and Embry's ridiculous jokes.

"Wait, so now you're dating one of the guys that tried to steal a dog?" her audience asked in disbelief. (She had edited the story a bit to protect the La Push tribe's wolves.)

"He's a good guy, Carrie."

"Do you think you have Stockholm syndrome?" Carrie asked. "This whole thing sounds really weird…"

She laughed. "No, of course not. It's just…I don't know. There is something weird about the way he looks at me. He's just really serious about some things." Laura took a bite of food, and thought. "But not about everything. He's really funny, actually. And something about him is…he seems content. Like he's truly happy. And nobody's happy anymore. Everyone always wants this or that and a bigger car. But he just seems like he's happy with life."

"You really like him, huh?"

Laura shrugged. "We'll see where it goes." She frowned. "But the way he talks, sometimes, you would think we'd known each other for longer. He talks like we're long term already, but we've only had two dates. One really." She tugged her hair as she thought. "Should I say something about that? I don't want to give him the wrong idea."

Carrie rolled her eyes. "You need to get over these commitment issues. It's like you're a guy."

Laura ignored that comment, because they had gone over this before. "Just because I didn't like that ventriloquist…" She made a face.

Carrie threw her napkin at her. "Kyle was a perfectly nice guy!" She defended the guy she had set her friend up with. "You would have liked him, if you had given him a chance. At least he doesn't break into peoples' houses."

"You don't know the whole story with that." Laura rolled her eyes.

"Do you?" Carrie challenged.

Laura paused. "No," she admitted quietly. She didn't know the whole story, and she knew that there was something Embry wasn't telling her.

"Just be careful, ok." Her friend nudged her shoulder lightly.

"Always am."

* * *

Laura sat with her cell phone in her hands. She was thinking about calling Embry, who she hadn't heard from since their coffee date. Finally steeling her nerves (why was she so nervous, anyway? He was just a guy) she dialed his number.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang.

She waited for the automated voicemail message, then, "Hi Embry, it's Laura. The veterinarian. I was just calling to say that I had a good time the other night, and I wanted to see if you wanted to maybe do something again some time. If you have time. Umm ok, I'll talk to you later, I guess. Bye."

She hung up quickly. Why was it so hard to leave a message? He was going to listen to that and laugh, she thought.

Another part of her quickly took over. If he laughed, so what, she would never see him again. He was just a guy; this was not a big deal, she reminded herself.

She was awfully busy anyway. She had so much work to do, and the clinic wasn't even really open yet. There was paperwork to be filed, licenses to be updated, and for some reason the Washington State Wildlife Authority kept leaving messages with her secretary about wolves in the area. She suspected her government agent visitors from last week had tipped them off, but she still didn't know how the government knew that she had a wolf, or how far she would go to cover for La Push. She had worked really hard for her professional standing and her reputation, and she could not lose it. For the moment she was putting off returning their calls.

She was so busy with work and finishing up her apartment and clinic that she was almost able to not count the days that Embry wasn't calling back. It took him two days, and she would like to pretend that she didn't spend those two days on edge and waiting for it to ring.

Finally he called. "Sorry, I've been really busy and I just got your message," he explained. "Would you want to grab lunch some day?"

Laura bit her lip. "Sorry, I usually work through lunch, and I have family visiting this weekend. What about dinner?"

"Nights are no good this week." He sighed. "Can I just come visit you at work? I have kind of a weird schedule this week."

She hesitated. It was sort of unprofessional to have a male caller while at work, but she really wanted to see him. What was he going to do while she was working, anyway? "If you want to," she agreed finally. "I'm not promising that it'll be that exciting."

"I'm sure I can entertain myself," he said lightly.

She hung up, her smile ridiculously wide.

Embry started stopping into her office randomly. He had charmed Katie, her receptionist, to not question his presence anymore, and usually just let himself in. Sometimes it would be in the mornings, sometimes not until sunset. He explained that his job entailed weird hours. She had not yet figured out what part of animal training required a schedule that was so random. But part of her would be looking forward to his heavy steps in the hallway, to his loud laugh.

For some reason, dogs seemed to take naturally to him. She filed that under the list of random facts she was acquiring about him. He hated the color orange. He only took his coffee with sugar. He seemed exhausted most of time, but despite that was always really happy. She got the sense that he was really busy with something lately, but he never mentioned what exactly it was. He could fold pieces of paper into origami hearts, and liked to leave them tucked into corners of her office.

In fact, he spent a lot of time hanging out in her office alone, folding paper, or, as she caught him once, sleeping. She felt bad that she couldn't spend more time with him, but he did know that she was at work, and he always seemed happy. And he kept the coffee brewing in the office, which she was convinced made him a godsend.

"Why do you have so many of those?" he asked one morning when she was unpacking a box of the cones they put around dog necks. "That's inhumane." He was folding a paper football at her desk.

Laura snorted. "No, it keeps them from itching or biting injuries. And I have a lot because there was a lab that needed one last week and I didn't have any. Looks unprofessional."

"But so many?" he persisted. He flicked the paper football at her, but it flew past two feet away from her head.

Laura looked down at the hundred pack of cones. "I don't like to look unprofessional." She felt her expression break into a small smile. "Ok, maybe I overestimated a bit…"

Embry threw his head back and laughed loudly. "At least we'll be prepared for a while."

Her smile grew at his laugh, but she felt a drop in her stomach at his words. Embry really thought they would be together for a while. She needed to have a talk with him about that. She wasn't looking for anything serious.

And yet, when he flicked another paper football at her, she laughed and flung her own back.

She would talk to him. But later.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

On Saturday, Laura's brother Cal stopped in for a visit. As soon as she saw his gangly frame coming up the stairs, she stopped making coffee and went to greet him.

"For me?" she asked lightly when she saw the bag in his hands. "Better not be another firearm, Calvin."

"Don't worry; I've moved on to heavier artillery," he responded. He wrapped her in a tight hug. "Just kidding. Mom sent me with some curtains that she insists match your couch."

Laura rolled her eyes. "She just buys me everything in the same shade of green so it all matches each other. I don't know how you haven't caught on to that yet. Come on in. You want coffee?"

"Laura, it's way too nice outside to be inside. Let's go outside somewhere. Anywhere. Is that park downtown open?"

She shook her head. "Not until after May," she reminded him.

"We're going to find somewhere nice outside," Cal declared. "Come on, I'm driving."

Cal followed the main highway south out of town, blaring Springsteen's top hits. He seemed antsy, drumming his hands on the wheel and singing along to the music. But whenever she caught his eye, he grinned at her. When they arrived at a fork in the road, Laura gratefully turned the radio down. "Right goes towards the mountains, left goes towards the coast."

"To the ocean!" Cal declared.

Eventually they ended up at a small, rocky beach. Cal jumped out with a flourish. "See, is this not better than sitting in your kitchen?" He took a loud gulp of air. "Smell the salty air!"

Laura raised an eyebrow at his exaggerated enjoyment. "This place is probably really nice when it's sunny outside," she conceded.

The sky was overcast, but it was still warm, with a pleasantly cool breeze. The beach itself was pretty quiet. There was an older man walking his dog by the water, and a group of younger men playing football up by the tree line, but the rest of the coast was wide open.

"How's Lindsey?" Laura asked about Cal's fiance.

Cal grinned. "She's good. She's really good, actually."

Laura paused from where she was examining a seashell and shot her brother an inquisitive look.

"She's pregnant," Cal blurted out. He was grinning from ear to ear. "I'm going to be a dad."

Her mouth dropped open in shock for a moment. "You're…Oh my gosh! Congratulations!" That sure explained his overly happy mood today. "How far along?"

"Three months. It'll come in October."

"He or she is a baby, not a package." She hit him jokingly. "How excited was mom?"

Cal shook his head. "I haven't told her yet. Lindsey's had…complications with an earlier pregnancy, so we didn't want to tell people until we were sure that it was healthy."

Laura covered her mouth. Cal's insistence on calling his baby an it didn't escape her. He was worried for Lindsey and the baby, even if he was trying not to show it. She hugged him hard.

"There's no reason to think that there will be an issues this time, though. We've got prenatal vitamins in bulk supply, and we've been super careful about our diet for the past few weeks."

Laura rolled her eyes at his rambling. "Stop saying we like you're pregnant too," she informed him. "On behalf of women everywhere, that's annoying."

Cal let out a loud laugh. "Never put up with my crap, do you?"

"Nope, and that's why I won't be babysitting once you have a little bundle of joy. Hope you're getting your sleep in now, because there won't be any for the next two years."

He smiled. "Looking forward to it. I hear that at some point your body actually supersedes the need for sleep. Is that medically accurate?"

She snickered. "In times of extreme duress…" She paused when a football came flying out in their direction. She moved to get it, but one of the men from the game was already jogging out for it. He froze when he saw her, though he quickly turned it into a smile and a wave. She waved back, thinking that he looked oddly familiar. She watched him jog back to his friends, slightly favoring his left leg. There was an old scar running down the outside of his thigh to his calf. She frowned.

He looked back at her for a second. His eyes were so familiar. Where had she seen them before?

"Do you know him?" Cal asked curiously, motioning to the teenagers.

"I don't know," Laura murmured. "He looks really familiar, but I can't place it." She noted how darkly tanned the group of boys was. Had they driven into the reservation somehow?

"Must just be from around town," he said, throwing an arm around her. "I can't believe you've never been out here."

She smiled. "I know, right? I need to do a bit more exploring." She nudged him. "Looks like a pretty family friendly area. Some nice tide pools for little kids."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another figure leave the football game, also walking towards them. She turned and saw it was Embry.

Laura's smile widened as she waved.

"No work today?" she asked, delighted as he came up to them.

"Not until later," he said lightly. Embry was staring at Cal curiously.

Laura cleared her throat. "Cal, this is Embry. He owns a…dog I treated," she made up quickly. "This is my brother, Cal."

Someone snorted behind Embry, but he ignored it as he shook Cal's hand.

"Welcome to La Push. Are you from around here?" he asked politely.

"I live in Port Angeles with my fiancé," Cal answered. "I was out here on business, so I stopped in for a visit."

Laura got the distinct impression that the two guys were sizing each other up and rolled her eyes.

"Did you see the game last night?" she prompted Embry.

"You a Mariners fan?" Cal asked.

Embry shrugged. "They're alright. Pretty good game last night, though. You?"

Her brother gave him a deliberate smile. "Born and raised. Heckuva game."

From behind their backs, Laura rolled her eyes again. Men.

She tuned them out as they got into the nitty gritty of scoring, refs, and the politics of stealing bases as she grabbed a few more shells.

Suddenly, a wolf howl echoed in from the woods, clear and loud and close.

"Holy heck, how close do animals get to this beach?" Cal asked.

Laura straightened up, pocketing her new finds. She realized that at some point everyone else had left the beach, leaving the three of them alone.

She wondered if that was a trained wolf that howled, or if those even existed. She hurried back to the others.

Embry shook his head. "They won't come close to any of the roads, trust me." He looked at his watch. "Sorry, I've got to go check on something at work. It was nice meeting you, Cal." He looked over at Laura. "You guys should head back to town. I think there's rain in the forecast. Can I see you Monday?"

She nodded. There was something weird about what was going on, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "I'll see you Monday."

Embry pulled her in for a quick hug. "Take care."

His final words seemed significant, even as he strode off towards the road.

* * *

"Are you guys serious?" Cal asked in the car on the way home.

Laura raised an eyebrow at him.

Cal rolled his eyes. "There's so obviously something going on with you two. Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

She shook her head. "We're not that serious. He's a nice guy though."

"I don't know. There was something weird about him and his friends," her brother said slowly. "I can't put my finger on it…"

Laura started. She hadn't even told Cal how she and Embry had actually met, so there shouldn't actually be any reason that he would be suspicious. Maybe Embry really was dangerous. There was something she didn't know about him, and for some reason people kept warning her against him.

* * *

On Monday, Embry showed up just as she was closing the office with a handful of flowers. Wildflowers, she realized, surprised. Where did these grow around Port Angeles?

"Sorry I had to just run out on you guys on Saturday," Embry said as an explanation. "I really did want to introduce you to La Push myself." He rubbed the back of his neck, seemingly embarrassed.

Laura waved away his apology. "It's fine. Thank you for the flowers. Let me grab a glass for them." She ran upstairs and came back with a pint glass, the closest thing she had for a vase. While she was upstairs, she reminded herself of her concerns from Saturday. Everyone seemed vaguely uncomfortable about Embry, including herself, but whenever he was around her she forgot about them. She resolved to get to the bottom of that today, to not forget.

She came back downstairs, finding Embry waiting in her office on the beat up couch. She paused. There was something inherently dangerous and powerful about him, even as he was slouched on her sofa, his long legs sprawled out. He looked exhausted. His face lit up when she walked back in, though, and she had a hard time remembering her suspicions.

"How did everything go at work this weekend?" she asked curiously.

His smile faded a bit as he lifted one shoulder. "Not that well, unfortunately. We've been dealing with a problem for a week now, and none of us can…finish it."

Laura perched herself on the arm of the couch facing him. "What problem? I don't really know what you do, exactly. You could practically run this office," she teased.

He shook his head. "It's kind of hard to explain, and I'd rather not talk about work right now."

She frowned. Shut down. Her feelings that he might not exactly be a wolf trainer were becoming more pronounced.

"Your brother seems nice," Embry said quietly.

She nodded, recognizing that for a peace offering. "He loves meeting fellow Mariners fans."

They sat quietly for a minute. Laura somehow knew that Embry knew that Cal was skittish about him, but they were both too polite to mention it.

"How come your tribal council is so keen to keep the wolves a secret, anyway?" Laura asked, changing the subject quickly. She wanted to get to the bottom of this. "It could bring in a lot of business, tourists, be good for the economy."

He shook his head decisively. "It would also kill our animals, our forest, our culture, our way of life."

Laura bit her lip, feeling doubly rebuked.

He sighed and grabbed her hand. "It was a nice thought. But my people have always cherished the wolves. They have protected the Quileutes for centuries. According to the legends, they are our ancestors." He held her gaze seriously. "I know it looks like the reservation might be suffering, economically. But my tribe has fought for a long time to preserve our culture. They make all the kids learn to speak our language, the traditional songs and dances. We tell our stories orally, to not forget." He leaned back. "Having journalists, scientists, white outsiders, a Holiday Inn inside the reservation… We could never take it back. You can't undo some things."

She nodded thoughtfully. "And what would they say if they knew you were spending so much time with a white girl?" She wondered what Embry's people would think of him dating a white girl. Would they see it as traitorous to their people? If she met his relatives—?

She stopped that thought right away. It wasn't a serious relationship.

He was lying to her about something.

She just had to keep reminding herself of that sometimes.

Embry smiled. "If they saw you, they would say I was darn lucky."

It wasn't a serious relationship, she reminded herself desperately, feeling herself blush.

"Can I interest you in a tour of La Push?" he asked. He tugged her down from her perch until she was leaned against him.

"Right now?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Honestly, I'm about to go home and crash. Tomorrow?"

She hesitated. He was lying about something. She could either decide that she didn't trust him and going anywhere with him alone was stupid and naïve. Or she could go with him and get to the bottom of it.

Curiosity won out.

"Sounds great." She stood up. "Now go get some sleep."

"Yes ma'am." He threw her a sloppy salute before he left.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"You can take off early, if you want," Laura offered to her receptionist, Katie.

"Yeah?" Katie grabbed her cell phone from where it was stashed underneath some filing. "Wait, why?"

Laura gestured to the empty waiting room. "I'm just going to vacuum up in here, and then I'm leaving too." She paused and smiled. "I have a date tonight. Sort of."

"With Embry?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Laura laughed, a bit embarrassed. "Maybe."

"I thought you two were already like engaged or something. He's in here like every day, just sits and waits for you. It's cute."

Laura rolled her eyes. "Maybe," she repeated.

"Well, if you're not dating him, maybe I'll give him my number," Katie said slyly.

"We're not serious. Or maybe we are. I don't even know if we're dating. He took me out to coffee once. We've never even…kissed."

Katie laughed and hefted her sizeable purse onto her shoulder. "Don't be such a prude, Laura. If it's meant to happen, it'll happen. Loosen up. And have fun tonight. I know I will be." And with that, her worldly seventeen year old secretary swept out of the room.

"So what part of La Push do you want to see?" Embry easily navigated the bumpy dirt roads with only one hand on the wheel as he gestured with the other. "That way leads to the tribal school. My old neighborhood is down that way, but I live on the other side of the reservation now. Up ahead on the left is the beach we were at this weekend."

"I don't know." Laura smiled. "What do you do for fun?"

Embry shrugged. "Hang out with my friends. Drink beer. Go fishing."

"Fishing?" She perked up a bit. "Like in the ocean?"

"Like in a river." He ruffled her hair. "You wanna come?"

She batted his hand away from her head. "I don't know. Do you catch things?"

"The last fish I caught was a two hundred pounder." She hit his leg and he snickered. "But usually, just a couple little perch. Maybe some cod on a good day." He paused, seeming to consider something. "I don't have any rods or nets or anything, but I could show you my super secret fishing spot. But I have to swear you to secrecy."

Laura raised her right hand solemnly. "Scout's honor."

He nodded approvingly. "That's what I like to hear." He turned the wheel suddenly, aiming the truck for a road barely larger than a trail. They were only on it for two or three miles before they came upon another vehicle, a rusty station wagon that looked like it could barely handle the rough terrain. Embry hummed thoughtfully as he pulled in behind the ancient car.

"I'll be right back. I need to make a quick phone call," he said as he jumped out of the truck. He wandered off towards a trail marker.

Laura frowned, following him out of the truck. Should she try to follow and listen to his conversation? She looked around.

"Hi, you must be Embry's girl," someone said out of nowhere.

She spun quickly, surprised. Where had he come from? She found a Quileute man, almost as tall as Embry, and with the same coiled strength about him. He was leaned against the older car. "We haven't met, yet. I'm Quil," he said with an easy smile.

She shook his hand. "Laura." She stared at Quil's eyes. Why did he look so familiar? Was it just because he looked a little like Embry, or…? And then, suddenly she realized that he had exactly the same eyes as the wolf's eyes. But that was impossible. Her mind must be making weird connections, she decided.

And yet, she found herself glancing down at the long scar on his left leg. Exactly where the she had stitched the wolf up.

Coincidence?

"Umm doc, can I have my hand back?" the young man asked quietly, a twinkle to his eyes.

Laura laughed, embarrassed, and let go of his hand quickly before his comment really sunk in. He called her doc. What did that mean? Did he know she was a veterinarian? Maybe Embry told him? She glanced down at his leg again.

Just a coincidence.

Quil turned to the side suddenly. A girl opened the door of the station wagon, wrapped up in a raincoat. When she got closer, Laura recognized her as the girl who picked up the wolf. What was her name? Claire? Quil smiled broadly at her approach and wrapped an arm around her when she joined them. "This is my girlfriend, Claire," he introduced proudly.

"I think we've met," Laura said thoughtfully. "How is the wolf doing?"

"He's much better, thanks to your good care," the girl answered. She grinned at Quil, but it wasn't clear if she was just happy to see him, or if it had to do with her answer.

She smiled. "Glad to hear it. Give me a ring if he gets infected or anything."

"I think he'll be ok," Quil assured her.

"And how did you injure your leg?" Laura asked, trying not to sound suspicious. "I hope the wolf didn't get you. It's funny, he had a deep cut in the exact same spot."

They both froze. Claire gave a high pitched giggle. "What a weird coincidence!"

Laura noticed that neither of them answered the question.

It couldn't be…just a coincidence.

"So what are you guys doing out in the middle of the woods?" Laura asked, with what she hoped was a light conversational tone.

Claire giggled. "Nothing." She was blushing.

Laura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She should have known better than to ask.

"Hey guys, I see you met Laura," Embry said.

Laura jumped; she hadn't heard him walking up.

"We should get going. Claire has to get to work," Quil said. "Nice meeting you, doc."

Laura watched Quil open the car door for his girlfriend. They were obviously very enamored with one another. "I don't remember telling him I was a vet," she murmured, not really meaning for Embry to hear it.

He paused for just a second, then chuckled. "Nothing stays secret for very long in a place this small. Everyone in town knows there's a new vet," he said quickly. "Come on, we're losing daylight."

She laughed and followed him onto the narrow trail. It wound through the undergrowth, heading up into the foothills. Embry strode ahead a bit, clearly at ease in the forest. He moved in a way that was somehow natural to the surroundings, like he was aware of everything around them. Laura was just trying to keep up, glad that she had worn flats.

He turned and grinned at her. "Sorry, I forget how shorter legs work sometimes," he teased as she caught up with him.

"Always picking on the short people, huh?" He took her hand and used it to pull her gently along behind him. Despite herself, she melted a bit. "You come out here a lot?"

"All the time." He squeezed her hand. "Stick with me; I can show you all the best trails."

Embry stopped walking suddenly. Every muscle in his body was tense as he dropped into a fighting crouch, practically panting. His head shot back and forth as he scanned the surrounding trees.

"What's going on?"

He continued watching the forest, but was stalking in a circle around her. Laura's nerves were screaming at her. She watched the muscles in his back and arms coil and flex and every vague warning people had given her about how dangerous he was came back to haunt her.

"You need to get out of here," he growled, his voice low and hard and rough.

"What?!" She was confused and more than a little scared.

"Do you trust me?" he asked seriously.

She stopped to consider the question. Everything in her said not to. He had lied to her. He had broken into her office. He was hiding a secret, a big one. What did she really know about Embry, for certain?

And yet. She did.

"Yes," she said quickly.

"Then run," he said, pointing. "The car's that way. I want you to get in and drive back to Port Angeles. Go!"

"What about you? What's going on?" she demanded.

"Go now!" he shouted. His expression twisted into anger and desperation.

Her gaze flashed between him and the trees, where she somehow knew something was coming.

"Get out of here!" he repeated. "I'll be fine! Trust me."

She started backing away slowly, torn between wanting to help and wanting to do what he asked. He was shaking, badly. She wanted to trust him, but if he was an epileptic or having some medical issue she couldn't leave him alone. She stopped about fifteen feet away and was about to call his name when suddenly, Embry exploded.

A huge wolf stood in Embry's place. Not just a huge wolf, but one similar to the one she had rescued. It threw its head back and howled.

Laura stumbled over a fern in her rush to back away.

Where did Embry go?

Was he…?

He couldn't be...

The wolf turned in a circle, sniffing the air.

Suddenly a blur flew out of the forest, landing on the wolf. The two slammed into the ground, rolling over and over. The wolf's jaw's snapped open and closed, but the blur—was that a person?—remained wrapped around its back.

Laura stayed back, pressed into a tree trunk. The two rolled and fought, each blow shaking the ground. She was too terrified to move.

"Doc, come on!" She peeled her eyes away from the scene before her and saw Quil's reassuring face. What was he doing here? He grinned, apparently not thrown off by the bloodshed nearby. Her eyes darted in between Quil and the fight. "Help's on the way! He'll be fine."

He grabbed her arm and dragged her away swiftly. She had to jog to keep up with his quick stride.

"His truck's over here, right?" he asked. She nodded. He already knew the answer; she thought he just wanted a response out of her. "Surprised it made it out here; the ignition stalls on this every other day."

She realized a minute too late that it was a joke. Her giggle was shrill and out of pitch as he practically dragged her along. Too late she thought of a witty retort about Quil's own ancient vehicle.

"You have the keys, right?" he coaxed out of her.

Laura suddenly realized how absurd it was that this younger boy was trying to take care of her. She was an adult. She was older than him. She was- "Are you even old enough to drive?" she asked.

Quil laughed, his sounding much more natural than hers. "I'm plenty old." He looked over at her, his voice kind instead of mocking. "Do you think you can drive right now?"

Her hands were shaking. She dug in her pockets for the keys, but it was a minute before she could get her hands to cooperate. Finally she got them out and handed them over. He unlocked the door quickly and nudged her into the passenger side. He stayed outside for a moment, looking back into the woods, before circling around the the quickly and starting it up.

"So, I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life," Quil said conversationally. "So thanks, by the way."

Laura stared at him. Her mind had connected the dots, but she refused to believe them. His eyes. They were exactly the same. His girlfriend had come to get him. It was so obvious, but so impossible. She couldn't say anything. What did one say to that? She finally just nodded.

"H-How did you get hurt?" she stuttered.

"Maybe I'll let Embry give you all the bloody details," he said. "I got into a bit of trouble, and I got lost on the way back and ended up on your doorstep. Luckily you were the exact right person to deal with it, huh? Sam's got all sorts of weird theories about that, by the way, but I'll let Embry tell you about those too. Can't go giving away all of our secrets."

"Trouble?" Laura repeated numbly, thinking of Embry, back there, alone.

Quil shook his head. "Not what was back there. The pack's already there; they'll be done in a little while. I was by myself because I wasn't thinking. Embry's smart. He's fine."

She nodded stiffly. "He'll be fine," she repeated softly.

Quil drove her to her office. She wondered if he knew that she lived in the upstairs apartment. "How's Mrs. Carter's yapper?" he asked conversationally as he got out, apparently inviting himself in. "Also, was that a coffee machine I smelled in the back room? I could really go for some of that. You want a cup?"

She refused to dwell on how he knew that Mrs. Carter's spaniel was in the back still, or how he could have ever smelled the coffee maker. Her mind could not process those questions yet. "Decaf, maybe," Laura agreed, following him up the steps.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Hey doc?" Laura roused herself at Quil's whisper. "I gotta go check on Claire. Embry's here. Go easy on the guy, ok?"

Laura pulled her head off of her desk. How long had she been asleep? She wondered. She glanced at the empty coffee mug on her desk and remembered drinking it, and then Quil had taken to pacing around in the doorway. She must have fallen asleep after that.

She nodded blearily at Quil and followed him to the door, where Embry was standing. The two of them shared a look that she couldn't decipher, and then Quil left.

She and Embry were alone.  
"I'm sorry," was all that Embry said.

Laura blinked at him. "I need some more coffee," she muttered. She left him standing at the door.

He had moved in slightly when she returned with two cups of coffee, handing one over. "H-how are you?" she asked after a long pause. "What happened?"

"I'm fine. I'm sorry that you were caught in that. They shouldn't have been that close." Embry looked tired and disappointed.

"What were they?"

He sighed. "Do you mind if we sit down?" He looked down at his hand, as if just realizing that he was holding coffee.

She led him upstairs to her kitchen table. This was the first time that Embry had been upstairs into her apartment itself. He cast a tired glance around, but more as an automatic precaution than as curiosity. Satisfied that there were no dangers lurking in her pantry, he dropped into a chair.

"So you know about Quil now, right? He's the wolf that you treated a few weeks ago." The blunt words, spoken aloud, shocked Laura once again. She did know, a part of her had known for a while, but to hear it outright was quite another thing. She nodded. "There's a few of us who can do that. We're shapeshifters; we change at will into wolves to protect our tribe."

This Laura had also known, but was surprised to hear out loud. She had partially suspected that this was all a joke. She thought back to every strange observation she had made about Embry: how large he was, how absurdly strong. The way he and Paul had just snapped her lock, and how Paul had replaced her door so quickly. She remembered how Embry said that he had been born into his job, his weird hours. She stared at him, noticing for the first time that he was barefoot. Her kitchen seemed far too small for his huge frame. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I become a big furry wolf when I need to. We're stronger than average, faster, and we run a higher temperature than normal."

"Why?" She cleared her throat. "Why do you need to?"

Embry leaned forward, keeping her eye contact. "Those things in the forest were vampires. They are why we phase. They are what we protect people against."

He reached over and gently pried her fingers off of her coffee mug, where they were gripping with white knuckles. His hand engulfed her smaller one with an intense heat, and yet they fit together quite nicely.

"Lore? Can you say something?" he prodded gently.

She jerked her gaze from their attached hands back to his face. "Vampires aren't real."

He rubbed her hands. "That thing in the forest was a vampire. But that's the closest I'll ever let one of those get to you again. We dealt with that one today, and everything's ok. Everything's ok."

"By dealt with…you mean…you turned into a wolf and…killed it?" The words, as she said them, were ridiculous. "You killed it?"

His expression became hard and he released her hand. "We only kill the ones that kill humans. Remember when I said that the wolves have protected the Quileute people for centuries? We are the protectors."

"How do I know what a vampire looks like? How do I protect myself?" she asked quickly, voice high.

"You don't," he practically growled. "You see a vampire, you don't go near it, hear me? And you call me; I don't care what else is going on. You're…too important to me to lose."

Her eyes widened at his quiet confession. Of all the times for their relationship to come up, it had to be now? Her mind was still spinning with his recent revelations about werewolves and vampires, but she couldn't let this go. He had to know that they weren't that serious, especially now. She needed to process and reevaluate this friendship. "Embry, that's really sweet, but we're just..."

"You're my imprint," he interrupted, his voice still quiet. He was avoiding her gaze. "It's another wolf thing."

He looked so serious, even just sitting at her table fiddling with an empty coffee mug. This was monumentally important, even if he was trying to act calm about it. She felt a weight settle into her stomach. "What does that mean?"

He put down the cup and held her gaze. "That means that I will protect you. I will be whatever you want me to be. You are what's most important in my life. Always."

She swallowed heavily. "That's a big commitment to someone you barely know," she observed.

He shrugged. "That's how things happen sometimes, I guess. One day you're breaking into someone's house to bust your friend out and then-bam- imprint. Paul gave me so much crap about it, by the way. If you hadn't heard us, we would have gotten Quil out of here that night."

"If it weren't for your meddling kids, and that dog," Laura muttered, somewhat deliriously. "So what…I don't…what do we do now?" Embry was presenting her with a problem; she felt like she had to fix it. She rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

He shrugged. "Whatever you want, I suppose. I am…whatever you want me to be."

She shivered at the seriousness of his voice. "What do you want to be?" she asked instead.

He stood up. "Right now, I want to be sleeping," he joked, putting his mug into the sink. "If you want to talk to someone about anything, Emily really wants to meet you. She's Sam's imprint. He's one of the older wolves." He glanced around her apartment, as if double checking it for any threats. "Those…things that we ran into earlier are gone," he repeated. She wasn't sure if it was for her benefit or his. "Will you be ok for the night?"

Laura nodded quickly. She was a grown woman. "I'll be fine." She paused. "Thank you. For everything."

He turned and gave her a tight one-armed hug. She tried not to stiffen or blush at the feeling of his body against hers. "Anything for my imprint," he said lightly, tweaking her nose. "You have my number if anything comes up," he called on the way out.

She stared after him, confused. "I do?" she murmured belatedly after he closed the door. She checked her phone, and his name was in fact in there, along with Quil's, who she suspected was the culprit. She smiled.

* * *

Laura felt a little odd sitting in Emily's homey little kitchen. Her hostess was bustling around making tea and clearing one of the kids' middle school science fair projects off the table. As far as Laura could see, it was an experiment involving several potato batteries and a cell phone. Kids these days. She fidgeted a bit, wishing that she was more like Betty Crocker and able to help out a bit.

She was also feeling extra twitchy after very little sleep the night before. Who could sleep after just finding out that vampires and monsters really exist? She had been very close to calling Embry, but her pride wouldn't allow it, so instead she sat up most of the night reading and jumping at every slight sound.

"Sit, sit," the older woman admonished when she tried to get up. "I'm just getting this water on to boil. Do you want anything to eat? I'm sure we have something in here. Food just goes so fast around here." She laughed.

Laura nodded awkwardly. Sam was at work and their three kids were all at school, Emily had explained, but their presence was all felt in the cozy house. Pictures and school tests were pinned to the fridge, a huge pair of work boots was sitting by the door, and a hamper of laundry was waiting to be folded on a spare chair.

"So tell me about yourself. I hear you're the new vet? How are you liking Port Angeles?" Emily finally sat at the kitchen table across from Laura, handing her a mug of tea. For some reason, the differences between the two women seemed to be encompassed in this cup. What did they have in common at all, other than being imprints of werewolves? Emily was almost two decades her senior and apparently the reincarnation of Martha Stewart. She drank tea and worked in town at a daycare. Laura was desperately addicted to coffee and still trying to adjust to life outside of college. She could barely organize her own life, let alone everything that Emily did.

"Port Angeles is nice; the patients here are definitely nicer than Seattle. That's where I studied. U Dub." She fiddled with her tea.

"Ah, I hear that's a lovely school," Emily commented.

Laura nodded. "They have a very good animal sciences program," she offered.

"Kim will be here in a bit, too," Emily said. "She's Jared's imprint. We try to…welcome the new imprints to the pack. You're part of our group now, and we ladies look out for each other." She winked, like she was letting Laura in on a secret.

Laura smiled politely. Apparently their shared supernatural imprints did make them best friends.

They heard the door open without any knocking. Emily smiled as another woman entered. "Ah, here's Kim. Kim, this is Laura."

Kim was also a few years older than her, but her hair was pulled into a no nonsense bun and she was still in office attire. Laura decided that she would probably like her better, but wasn't precisely sure why.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Kim said with a smile. "You must have a lot of questions."

Laura flinched at their sudden rapt attention as they waited for her to hurl a question their way. "I guess I'm still trying to figure the whole imprint thing out. Is it a soul mate?"

"Sort of. It doesn't need to be romantic if you don't want it to be, though."

Laura looked between them. "You both married your imprints." She suddenly realized something. "And Claire and Quil, they're dating, right?"

Emily spoke first. "The imprint just bonds you two together. It can take the shape of whatever the imprint wants or needs. Don't feel pressured to do anything. You can be friends, or you can be something more."

"So...if I say I want a relationship, he just becomes ok with that?" Laura repeated, stupefied. "Where is the free will around here?"

"I'm not explaining it right, I think," Emily murmured, looking to Kim for help. "He'll love you either way, but not in the same way. The imprinters are whatever their imprints need at the time, be it a friend, a confidante, a protector, a lover…"

Laura nodded dumbly.

Laura's heart broke, considering the two options before her. One was to have Embry, but not by his choice. He would never normally go for someone like her, someone so serious, so plain. And yet, one word from her and he would be a perfectly devoted boyfriend. Her only other option was to lie to him, to say that all she wanted was platonic. He could date whoever he wanted. She would have to watch him leave her and meet other people, but would be unable to ever truly have him.

It was devastating. Either way, she couldn't be with him. Not really.

Laura liked to protect people. Somehow Embry had become one of the people that she protected.

Even if she was protecting him from herself.

* * *

"How was girls' night?" Embry asked, inviting himself into her office the next day. He walked straight over to the counter and he helped himself to the leftover coffee in her pot.

Laura looked up from her papers with a confused look. Where was her secretary? What exactly was she paying that girl for? If anything, it was to stop attractive men from coming in and making her believe that they really were friends. That it wasn't all fake. "Girls' night was fine," she answered lightly. She watched him search the countertop. "In the right hand drawer," she helped, directing him to the sugar. It didn't seem odd that she knew exactly how he took his coffee.

"I love that there's always coffee around here," he remarked lightly. She dragged her thoughts away from the words _I love_. "Did they…help explain things?" he asked, turning to lean against the counter and watch her. Her eyes lingered for a moment on the way his black tee shirt was stretched a bit too tight across his wide shoulders. Why did he have to show up looking extra gorgeous on the day that she would more or less break up with him? Life was unfair sometimes.

She took a deep breath to collect herself. It was now or never. This was when she had to set out how it was going to be between them. This moment would define their relationship for…possibly ever. "Yes, I think I understand better." She forced herself to look him in the eyes. "So we can just be friends?"

Some emotion flashed across his face before he smiled. "Of course, if that's what you want." He took a long drink of coffee. "Emily really liked you."

"She was great," Laura said agreeably, starting to feel sick of her stomach. Why did this feel so wrong? She tried not to think about how she could have Embry if she just said the word. She didn't want it to happen like that, and yet it seemed better than this sham friendship.

Embry left soon after, but paused on his way to his truck. There was a window on the side of the building that looked right into the first examination room. He watched his imprint settle a dog onto her examining table. She scratched the dog behind the ears while his owner rambled about his slight limp. He smiled lightly, but it turned into a grimace. He finally found his imprint…and she just wanted to be friends. He had waited for fifteen years for her to show up, not getting into any deep relationships, keeping things casual, looking for her…and all she wanted to be was friends. There was a part of him that was really disappointed about that.

But…there was another part that wondered if he could go out and date someone else, someone that wasn't chosen by his wolf. He wouldn't have the threat of his imprint sitting over him if he had her blessing, right?

But as he watched Laura placate the older woman and rub her dog's belly, he wondered if he even wanted to find anyone else.

He had been waiting for a wife to fall into his lap from Taka Ahi. What was he supposed to do now?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Embry became a more or less permanent fixture of her office during his off time, which she learned was when he wasn't running patrols (as a wolf) around La Push. He usually brought a book, but ended up dozing on the couch in her office. If she wasn't working, then he had taken to using her kitchen as his own. She discovered that Embry could actually cook, which was a skill that she had not yet picked up in her post-college life. He had snorted at the amount of ramen and pasta in her cupboards and started teaching her the basics.

"So chicken is really easy. It comes in this funny plastic container, and you have to open it, like so."

"It's full of chicken juice," she felt obligated to point out. She was a scientist and knew exactly how many bacteria were in that packing liquid, and how many cases of food poisoning resulted yearly. Also, it was gross.

"We're going to wash it," he explained patiently.

"So I need to touch it?"

He raised his eyebrows at her from where he was holding a piece of chicken in each hand.

She made a face at him. "I'll observe from back here."

He held out a piece of raw meat to her. "Come on, it's not that bad." His eyes crinkled up at the corners with mirth. "Come on, stop acting like such a kid." At some point he had realized that he just needed to remind her exactly how old she was to get her to do anything. She reluctantly came forward a bit. He reached forward quickly and seized one of her hands in his sticky hand, passing her the chicken. She squealed way too loudly.

"This is disgusting. This is why I used to be a vegetarian," she muttered as he turned on the tap and urged her forward. She became very aware of his body right behind hers, that if she just leaned back and moved her head a bit…

"Little vegetarian afraid of some meat?" Embry teased.

She grimaced and finished cleaning the chicken quickly before passing the cooking off to him for good. She sat on the counter across the room from him, hoping that physical distance would prevent her from jumping him.

That didn't stop her from discreetly taking a picture of him with her phone, though.

He noticed and winked. She turned away, blushing. She couldn't let him get to her like this. It was for both of their goods if she didn't let him know how much she liked him.

Next to her on the counter, Embry's phone started vibrating. "Someone's popular," she remarked. This was definitely the third time that his phone had rung, tonight. She fought down the curiosity and jealousy that came with that. Maybe he had met someone. Maybe that was who was calling. That was what she wanted, right?

Embry laughed and shook his head from where he was breading the chicken. "It's broken. Been ringing randomly for the last day, but I can't figure out how to turn it off. I'm waiting for the battery to die so it'll stop annoying me."

He had a really simple flip phone that Laura had probably had when she was twelve. "Did you get water into it?" She snapped it open and started pressing buttons. The screen wouldn't light up, but she was pretty sure that it didn't normally light up.

He shrugged. "It just stopped working." He was pretty technology illiterate, she had found.

She pried off the back panel and saw that, in fact, the water seal was colored. She dug around in her cupboard until she found some uncooked rice and dumped it into a bowl with his phone. "It'll work, trust me."

"I didn't know you knew how to use rice," he joked.

"Ha ha," she deadpanned.

The chicken that night was delicious. Laura tried to not think about how she could get used to this—to having company around at night, to having actual food, to nagging Embry about eating his vegetables.

She was going over her to do list in her office the next day when Embry stopped in. She gave him a distracted greeting. The health safety regulator was coming soon, and she needed to have all of the bits and pieces of construction out of her clinic when that happened. There were still a few stray pieces of molding that she hadn't had time to put onto the wall and paint yet. She had to call Cal and check on his fiancée and her niece or nephew-to-be. She had to see about putting that ad into the paper about the clinic. Those government agents were still calling about that wolf and she kept ducking their calls. She had to talk to Katie about reworking the filing system into alphabetical order—or any order. She needed to buy more pens because she kept losing them and was writing her to do list with a marker.

"That's a ridiculous to do list you have there," Embry remarked, reading over her shoulder. If he saw the note about the government, he chose not to comment. "What's 'move wood' mean?"

She explained about the random molding that was lying around still. He scoffed a bit, grabbed five of the boards at once and lifted them easily.

Laura's eyes were drawn to his large biceps.

"Where do you want this?" he asked.

She tried to force down her blush and waved to the back room. "Anywhere there's space. I'll figure it out later." She needed to get him out of here before she did something that would give her away.

"Are you ok?" he asked when he came back out and she was in the same spot.

She nodded, too quickly, still staring at her paper.

"Are you sure?" he persisted.

He was being too nice. She was going to crack under the interrogation. "I'm fine!" she snapped. "Just busy," she added in a quieter tone.

He recoiled as if she had slapped him. "All right." He grabbed the last of the boards and brought it to the back rom. "I've got to go. I'll see you later," he said quietly. She knew she had hurt him, but she didn't look up as he left.

After the door had shut, when she was sure he was gone, she banged her head down on the desk in frustration. Was this the right thing to be doing?

Quil watched Embry pace restlessly across Jared's living room. "Dude, sit down. You're making me nervous," he said finally, chucking a throw pillow at Embry's head.

Embry sighed, throwing himself onto the couch next to Quil.

Jared growled from the kitchen. "Watch the furniture!" he called.

"What's bugging you, man?" Quil poked him in the shoulder.

"My imprint's mad at me," Embry muttered. "I don't know what happened."

"Chill man. She was ok with the whole werewolf thing and the mystical soul mate crap. Whatever you did couldn't have been that bad," Quil said lightly. "Just bring her some flowers or something. Claire loves that stuff."

He pulled at one of the loose threads of his tee shirt. Quil didn't understand. He had almost always had Claire. Quil knew Claire as well as her own mother, and she had accepted their supernatural bond as being a part of life. He couldn't even remember the last time the two of them had fought.

"She doesn't want to be soul mates," he muttered finally. "She wants to be friends." He heard the conversation in the kitchen stop in curiosity.

"Is my wing man back?" Brady asked eagerly, bounding inside.

Quil gave him a rude gesture and waved him out. "She'll come around, man," he said, thumping his shoulder. "Who could resist your charm?"

Embry groaned and shook his head. "I can't. It's supposed to be her choice, you know? I can't convince her to date me if she doesn't want to. She wants to be friends, so that's all I get. I put myself out there and she shot me down." He rubbed his hands over his face. "I just…I waited years for her. I thought she'd be worth it."

Quil tightened his hand on his friend's shoulder. "She will be worth it. Don't be a jerk 'cause you're not getting laid yet. These things take time."

"I waited fifteen years!" Embry growled, slamming his fist down on the couch arm. Jared growled warningly from the next room. "I put my time in!" He lowered his voice. "I'm just over the whole bachelor thing, man. I want a life; I want a family. I thought that this would be it." He drew in a shaky breath. "If she isn't looking for the same thing, I can't convince her. I need to be what she wants. I…I want those things with her. I want her at my house instead of that crappy apartment above her clinic. I want little kids with her eyes and my hair to take to little league games. I can't watch her have that with some other guy. I can't stick around and not want her like that."

The silence of the entire house wrapped around him suffocating. From outside, he heard the sounds of a car stopping. Kim and the kids were home. He couldn't sit here and listen to their happy family talk. He leapt to his feet and shoved past everyone in the kitchen to the back door. He made it out just as Molly started telling her dad and Brady about soccer practice.

Laura stared at the wildflowers on her desk. They were getting a little droopy, but still held onto their bright colors. She felt really bad about snapping at Embry this morning, but wasn't sure how to fix it. She resolved to call him and apologize. She couldn't keep taking the imprint out on him. She sighed and moved the flowers over to the counter, where they weren't so distracting.

Her doorbell rang and she looked up at the clock, confused. Who would be here at nine o'clock at night? Maybe it was an emergency.

She slid on a pair of sandals and opened the door. It was the two government agents from before, still in matching suits and frowns. Crap, she had been ignoring their phone calls for the past two weeks, but she didn't think they would actually show up again.

"Doctor Karl? I'm afraid you'll have to come with us."

Laura crossed her arms. "What seems to be the problem? I have done nothing illegal."

"Miss Karl, we just need your assistance on an ongoing investigation. Your full cooperation is appreciated."

She shook her head. Something was really off about this. Did they need a warrant for this? Should she ask for her rights? They weren't arresting her, but this wasn't phrased as a request either.

The agents exchanged blank looks when she didn't move.

"If you have done nothing illegal, then there is no reason to not cooperate. If you don't come now, we'll have to go get an arrest warrant."

She felt her mouth twist into a frown. "Fine, then. Let me just grab a jacket…"

"Now, please, Miss Karl." One of them placed his hand behind her back and hustled her out of the house and into their car.

Thirty minutes later, Laura found herself sitting in what looked eerily like an interrogation room from tv. Across the table from her sat two agents. She wasn't quite sure if they were the same ones as before: both had cropped brown hair and hard expressions. One was wearing glasses now, and that seemed to be the only way to differentiate them.

"Now, Miss Karl," the one with the glasses said. "We've heard from numerous reports in the area that you have had a wolf in your custody within the past month. Is that true?"

Laura stared at them both across the table. "I want to speak to a lawyer."

He leaned against the table. "I'm sure a lawyer won't be necessary," he said firmly. "After all, we're not the police. And I'm certain that if you were to have had a wild animal in your custody, that you would have notified the appropriate authorities." His smile was slimy.

Laura's mouth turned into a thin line.

"So you would have lodged a report with the regional authorities, Miss Karl?" the big one prompted.

She nodded.

"I see." They stood up simultaneous. "We need to consult with some of our associates. We'll be back shortly."

"Wait, how long will I be here for?" she shouted at the closing door. "You can't just leave me in here! Habeus corpus!"

The door stayed shut.

She huffed out a breath and slouched back into her seat.

Laura wasn't sure how long she had been sitting in the same hard metal seat before Classes and Not Glasses returned. They sat calmly across from her and proceeded to fire questions at her.

"How long have you worked in Port Angeles?" "What college did you attend?" "What work does your mother do?""How old is your brother Calvin?" "Are you familiar with the Wildlife Car Reform Act of 2008?" "Have you left the country within the last six months?" "Are you familiar with the Quileute tribe in the reservation of La Push?"

Laura started answering as patiently as she could, but soon became annoyed and frustrated. "What is this about?" she snapped after the question about La Push.

"Miss Karl, how much do you know about one Embry Call?"

She frowned. "I know him pretty well."

"Do you know that he and several of his associates are being investigated by the government?"

Her heart skipped a beat. "Under what charges?"

Glasses gave her a thin smile. "I'm afraid that I am not at liberty t discuss ongoing investigations. Could you tell us everything you know about Mr. Call and his friends?"

She shook her head firmly. "I have no incriminating evidence. He's a good man."

Glasses leaned forward. "If he is charged with a crime, you could be blamed as an accomplice. We have several reports of him visiting your clinic, Miss Karl. Would you care to comment on that?" She said nothing. "What about the wolf that was in your custody?"

Laura shrugged. "The owners came up with the proper documentation. They took custody of it." As son as she said that, she cursed herself. Earlier she had been set on denying the existence of the wolves, but she had been too eager to clear Embry's name and her clinic's legitimacy that she wasn't thinking.

They shared a glance. "Ah, it was a pet. Was there anything unusual about this wolf? Any distinct markings, unusual size?"

Laura shook her head. "Seemed completely normal."

"Miss Karl, you are aware it is a criminal offense to lie to government personnel."

She said nothing.

"Miss Karl, we need the truth now. This is a matter of national security."

Laura nearly snorted.

"I don't think that you're taking this seriously." Glasses leaned over and grabbed her arm. "I'll ask you again. Where is the wolf?"

She tried to pull her arm back, but his grip was tight. "Look, I told you. I sent it back with the owners."

"A wolf that big would be worth quite a bit of money," Glasses pointed out. "You knew that. It would be the decade's biggest scientific discovery. You would be famous. You didn't just hand the wolf back to someone. Where is it?"His fingers wrapped tighter.

Laura shook her head.

"Miss Karl, this is a very serious matter. We strongly encourage your cooperation," the big one said.

"I'm not telling you anything!" she snapped. "Let go of me!"

"Where is it?" he yelled back, his calm exterior gone.

She spat in his face.

He growled and pushed one of her arms down. Laura heard a sickening crunch just as a searing pain shot up her arm. She screamed, but he didn't let go of her arm yet. "Where is it?" The other one was yelling something too, but she couldn't make it out over her own screams.

"Stop it! Let me go!" she shrieked. Her arm burned; she couldn't remember the last time she was in this much pain.

The big one reached forward and dropped a heavy hand on his comrade's shoulder. Glasses reluctantly withdrew. "Think about it. Maybe you'll remember where you've put the animal," he suggested as they left.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Embry sat in his truck in the parking lot of Laura's office. He was pretty sure going inside wasn't the best course of action right now and tossed aside the package of pens he had bought on the way here. He was still not sure why she was mad, but the whole situation was irking him and he couldn't risk losing his anger. He hadn't phased accidentally in years, but it wasn't worth the risk. He instinctively felt that they needed a little distance right now.

He leaned forward a bit and squinted at the building. He could hear the Pizza Brothers working next door, and the man that lived in the house across the street. Where was Laura? His supernatural senses couldn't detect her anywhere. Frowning, he jumped out of the truck and walked closer, but still couldn't find her.

He knocked on the door before walking in. Leaving the door open was pretty much the norm for this neighborhood. He frowned. It was completely quiet in her office. It was Saturday; she wasn't open, but usually she was down here doing something. He checked the entire office downstairs before her apartment upstairs. It felt wrong to be up there without her. It was empty.

Maybe she left for the day. Maybe she just ran out to do some errands? Her car was here, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. He was jumping to conclusions, he tried to tell himself. She would be back any minute and be creeped out by his intrusion. And yet…

He whipped out his phone—the one that she had fixed—and called her cell. He heard it ringing from inside her office. She never went anywhere without her phone. He went into her office again and took a glance around. There were papers still spread out on her desk. Half a pot of coffee was waiting on the counter, but it was cold to the touch. Her desk light was on, even though sunlight was coming in through the windows. There were a couple of rings stacked on the desk, the sort of thing she would take off late at night when they were bothering her. The overhead fan was still spinning on lazy circles. All in all it looked like she had just stepped out for a minute—a few hours ago.

He sat on the couch and tried to collect his thoughts. Maybe she was just out for a few errands. Maybe she was out with friends. Maybe Cal was here again. Maybe she just left her door unlocked accidentally. Maybe she just forgot her cell phone. Maybe she forgot to turn off the lights and the fan. Maybe she was coming back soon.

Maybe something was wrong.

He felt a sudden flash of white hot pain come shooting down the imprint bond.

Something was wrong.

* * *

Her arm started to ache with a dull throb. She knew with a clinical detachment that it was broken and she was going into a mild form of shock, but it didn't matter right now. She had lost all track of time as there were no windows in this room.

If she was gone too long, Katie would report her missing when she came in for work on Monday. Or Cal would know something was wrong when she didn't answer her phone. Or Embry… Embry was mad at her. He wouldn't realize she was missing. But someone would.

Someone walked in and slammed a paper cup of water down in front of her. She gulped it down greedily.

"Miss Karl, are you ready to cooperate now?"

She was pretty sure she responded with some swear words, but the pain was making her head feel fuzzy and detached. She shook her head and tried to collect herself. "I want a lawyer."

The agent smiled at her condescendingly. "That won't be necessary. You aren't under arrest, after all."

He tried asking her a few more questions, but she stayed resolutely silent.

"Well, we'll try again in a bit, won't we?" he said conversationally as he left. She glared at the door.

* * *

"We have to go get her," Quil argued with Jacob.

Their current commander was sitting on the ground with his head lowered in thought. Paul was sitting on top of Embry a few feet away. They were outside of the government facility where Laura was being held, having found it through tracking a combination of scent and Embry's instincts, which they had discovered could lead a wolf to his imprint with impressive accuracy. They had sent in Collin, the smallest, to hide by the outer wall in human form, and he had overheard much of the latest round of questioning. Most of the pack was nearby as well, pacing through the trees.

"You heard Embry; she's hurt. We can't leave her there. We're protectors, dammit." Quil's voice was getting worried as the alpha didn't respond.

"They want a wolf. They're on to our secret, somehow. They're looking for us. She's bait." Jake was more talking out loud than to any one of them. "How do we get her out?"

"We rush the place," Paul suggested.

"Pretend to be a lawyer or something," Brady suggested.

"This is the government," Collin pointed out, hitting the back of Brady's head.

"We can't give them one of us," Jake continued, ignoring them.

"They can take me," Embry grunted from underneath Paul. He had stopped fighting frantically a few minutes ago, but Paul remained seated on his chest. Jerk. "Let me go."

"You can't give up our secret." Jake was only saying what they were all thinking. To give them a werewolf was not only placing the wolf in great danger, but the entire tribe. They were well and truly in a catch 22. "We can't fight them. The place is covered in cameras."

"We can't leave her," Quil tried again, weakly.

The alpha sighed and hung his head. "No, we can't, can we?"

* * *

What seemed like hours later, the door opened again. Laura had to drag her head off of the table to stare at the newcomer.

"Miss Karl, there has been a change of plans," Glasses said with an odd expression.

"What do you mean?" she asked, dreading the answer. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You had some visitors. They gave us what we were looking for. You're free to leave. We probably won't press charges."

She scoffed. They kidnapped her and broke her arm and were promising not to press charges? How lovely.

He led her down the hall, and she felt the dread grow. What did he mean that they got what they were looking for?

Glasses opened the door into another room.

"What happened to her arm?" Quil demanded.

Glasses shrugged. "She was being uncooperative."

Quil strode forward and pulled her by her good arm away from Glasses. He kept her tucked protectively under one arm. It was only then that she saw the wolf in a cage in the corner. Embry.

Quil's arm tightened and he kept her firmly against her side. "What about the wolf?" he asked.

Glasses smiled uncomfortably. "It is a wild animal. Your permit was obviously a forgery. Since it was wandering in residential neighborhoods, it is a danger to society. It's under government custody now."

"No!" Laura said a bit too loudly. "You can't take him!"

Glasses ignored her. "Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Ateara. You've done the right thing by containing this beast."

Quil nodded stiffly and half carried Laura out the door. She resisted, fighting his grip to get back to Embry. Once they were outside, he hoisted her over his shoulder with a grunt.

"What are you doing? He's back there! We can't leave him!" she protested. "Quil!" she screamed, hitting him with her good arm. She was lightheaded and nearly hysterical.

He grunted, but his arms didn't loosen at all. "Be quiet!" he finally growled.

"How can you do that? Just leave him there?" Her voice was embarrassingly high pitched. She might have been crying. "Those aren't vampires! That's the government. Oh god, oh god."

"Doc, you've got to calm down for me, ok? Embry will never forgive me if I let his girl hyperventilate now." He laughed hollowly.

He was scared too.

Pushing that thought away, she tried to slow her breathing.

"Good," he said soothingly, like she was a child. He shifted her in his arms so that she was riding him piggyback. He checked the perimeter carefully before ducking into the woods. "Paul's waiting with the car right through these woods. You're staying with him and Rachel tonight."

"What about Embry?" she whispered.

"Jake and Leah are working on it," he said reassuringly.

"We can't just leave him there! He's your friend!"

"Yes, we can," he said steadily, hiking her up further on his back. "Because you're my best friend's girl, and he told me to get you home, even if it means leaving him." There was a hard edge to his voice.

She was done being carted off from danger, especially if it meant leaving Embry in danger. She was done waiting at home for him. She was his soul mate, dammit, and she was going to protect him for once.

She slid her hand over Quil's shoulder until she found the point she was looking for. She pinched the pressure point hard, harder than it would normally take. Quil's entire body suddenly stiffened, and then completely relaxed. He grunted as he dropped to the ground. She winced as her bad arm and both knees knocked against the ground, but pulled herself up.

"Sorry Quil," she whispered at her now unconscious friend. She tried to drag him under a bush, but he was too heavy. She settled for covering him with two large branches. Then she turned around and ran right back to the lab.

The door was locked, but she had seen one of the agents do the numerical code on their way in: 1776. How patriotic. She pounded it in angrily and then swung the door open, darting inside.

The first hallway, she remembered led into the room she had met Quil in. It was a long, plain hallway with doors on either side: nowhere to hide. It was either two doors down or three doors down. How many doors had they passed on their way out? She couldn't remember.

"All right, he's all set for the night. Good job, eh, Williams."

Someone was right behind door number two. And it sounded like they were coming out.

Laura panicked and grabbed the first door she saw on her right, shutting it just as the door across the hall swung open. She found herself in a small, and blessedly empty, office.

"So in the morning we'll start running tests. I want a report sent to Washington soon so I can get my bonus." The voice was right on the other side of the door, it sounded like.

"All right, don't get ahead of yourself," a second voice answered. It sounded like Glasses. "It might take a while to figure out anything useful from this one. We need to keep it alive, after all. Pity we can't do a dissection. I'd love to get a look at its organ structure."

Laura's breath caught. Too late she realized how loud her gasp was.

"No dissections," the other voice said firmly. "I'll see you bright and early."

Suddenly the doorknob started turning. Laura looked around frantically for a moment, before throwing herself behind the door as it opened. The door swung open and she pressed herself to the wall behind it, hardly daring to breathe. She heard someone rifle around with the papers on the desk, pick up a few things. She tried to calm her breathing; it seemed like the agent would be able to hear her heart pounding away.

After a minute, though, the light flicked off and he shut the door on his way out.

Laura slumped to the floor, shaking a bit. She didn't know what they would do if they caught her here, but she didn't want to find out. As it was, she knew she was running on pure adrenaline and it wouldn't last long. She needed to find Embry and get him out.

First, though, she had to make sure everyone was really out of here.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Laura eased the office door open slowly and listened. The hallway was completely silent. She crept forward to the door she was pretty sure she had last seen Embry in.

She paused outside and listened. She couldn't hear anything, but if there was someone inside, she needed a weapon or something. She couldn't just go in blind.

Across the hall, she spied a door marked Custodial.

Better than nothing, she thought, and eased it open, grabbing the most promising weapon: a broom.

Feeling reassured, she returned to the door and listened for another minute or so. Then, with a deep breath, she turned the doorknob and rushed in, broom held high.

The lights were off, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Laura dropped the broom and reached out with a shaking hand to find the light.

The wolf—Embry—lay inside his cage, sprawled out on his side. For one long awful moment, she thought he might be dead, until finally his side rose in a shaky breath.

Laura felt her heart start beating again, and she started looking for the key to the cage. "Embry," she whispered, and poked him through the bars. "Embry!" He barely moved. They had drugged him.

Laura panicked. What would she do if she couldn't wake him up? She couldn't carry him outThere was nowhere to hide in here. "Embry!" she said a bit louder. "You've got to wake up. Please."

The wolf's ears twitched. She kept talking to him, even as she was searching the cupboards for a key. "Embry, hon, you've got to wake up. We're gonna get you out of here." Finally she found a set of keys, and started trying each one in the lock. She had to fumble around a lot with her one working hand. She was shaking. As she spoke, Embry slowly stirred, as if forcing himself out of a deep sleep.

Click. Wrong key. Click. Wrong key. Click. The key turned.

Laura practically threw herself into the cage, her hands running through the wolf's fur. "Embry, Embry, come on, wake up. We need to get out of here."

He was drugged, she thought and panicked. He wouldn't wake up. They would catch her here, and arrest her, or worse.

Suddenly the fur beneath her fingers changed, becoming hair and skin. In a moment she had a still unconscious Embry lying naked inside the cage. "Embry, you've got to wake up. We need to leave."

His chest rose in a deep breath, and then his eyes slowly opened. He reached out and grabbed her good hand. "Laura." His voice was rough and raspy, but his grip was firm.

She leaned her head against his chest, silently crying. "I thought you were…" She stopped, unable to finish the sentence.

His free hand cupped the back of her head and stroked her hair. "It's ok, I'm fine," he whispered. Finally his words sunk in and she picked herself up awkwardly with her good hand. "What happened to your arm?" Embry asked worriedly.

Laura shook her head. "Let me find you clothes and then I'll tell you." Her face turned bright red when she realized that she had been sprawled out on top of him when he had been naked, but he continued to look confused.

"Are we in the lab? What are you doing here?"

She waved away his questions. "Let's get out of here. Do you want to try to stand up?"

He pushed himself to a seated position and groaned. "Why do I feel so…?"

"They drugged you, I think." Laura kept looking at the door, worried someone might walk in and find a naked man where they were expecting a wolf. "You could hear if anyone was coming, right?" He nodded. "Ok, I'm going to find you some clothes. I'll be right back." He made a noise of protest. Laura grinned and showed him her makeshift weapon. "I'll be fine."

She ducked back into the custodial closet and found a white lab coat in it. That would do for now. She crept up the hallway and listened for footsteps. It was all clear. She rushed back to Embry, feeling instantly better when she saw him standing against the table. Blushing, she passed him the coat, but had to help him put it on.

"It looks like it's all clear up to the door," she told him.

He grunted in acknowledgment. "You know that after this we need to have a serious conversation about you endangering yourself."

Laura rolled her eyes. "Look who's talking, buddy." She looked away as he buttoned up the coat. "So here's the plan…"

* * *

"So then," Paul laughs as he recounted the story later. "I find Quil passed out under a tree and I wake him up."

"Hit me until I woke up, you mean," Quil corrected from his seat on Emily's counter.

Paul waved his comment away. "You shouldn't have been sleeping on the job." They ignored Quil's grunt of protest. "Anyway, we go and stake out the door to the lab in case anyone comes out. And so the door comes out and Embry comes running out without pants, and his imprint's behind him with a broom like she's gonna fight anyone off with that."

Laura hid her face inside Embry's oversized sweatshirt, which he had loaned her, as people chuckled. Apparently Paul recapping their exploits was a common thing in Emily and Sam's living room. Everyone had overloaded plates of comfort food balanced on their knees as they waited to hear the story. Laura had only gotten a precursory introduction of, "This is the pack," and had the weird feeling that they all knew exactly who she was, even though she didn't know them. Right now, in her state of exhaustion they all looked the same anyway.

"So this janitor follows them out, shouting about how he needs the broom back, and he's calling security. We left pretty quick after that," Paul finished.

"So where's the broom?" asked one of the women in the room, a tall and imposing young woman with a severe bowl haircut.

"In the car," Laura muttered to howls of laughter.

"That'll show them for kidnapping you!" someone whooped.

Laura chanced a smile, leaning against something warm. The doctor at the hospital had fixed her arm with a somewhat critical glance at Embry. He had reddened and looked flustered when he realized what they looked like, in the emergency room after midnight, her with a broken arm and him standing by the door looking imposing. It was only by her insistence that they had stopped to get him some clothes beforehand. They had given her some sort of painkillers to take with food, so she had downed them before devouring nearly an entire plate of Emily's mashed potatoes. She supposed that it was the chemicals in her system making her eyelids so heavy.

"And thus, the fierce warrior rests," Paul finished with a grand tone reminiscent of Billy Black as he raised an eyebrow at a sleeping Laura cuddled into Embry. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at Paul.

"So what happens now? Do we call the cops?" Brady asked.

"On the government?" Collin asked. "Who's gonna field that 9-1-1 call?"

"They hurt her," Embry said simply. "I'm doing something about it." There was a general rumble of discordant voices debating attacking the lab.

"She can't go home." Emily's voice was quiet and reassuring. "They know where she lives. And she's safe on the reservation at least."

Embry nodded. "She can stay with me."

Quil shot him a skeptical glance that silently said, "Really? That's not going to be weird?"

Embry gave him a look that clearly conveyed, "Shut up, I can deal with living with my broom-wielding platonic soul mate." Sometimes having had your best friends in your mind all the time was useful.

"Well, I'll make you guys a casserole then," Emily said brightly.

Quil rolled his eyes with a smirk. Emily whapped him on the arm with her spoon on her way back into the kitchen. "You can help, Quil," she called.

Quil's smirk melted into a scowl as he dragged himself up to peel potatoes.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Laura woke up in an unfamiliar room. It was small but painted a bright cheery blue color that made it seem bigger. She could tell from the light outside that it was at least midday.

She sat up slowly and found her arm in a cast. Slowly the events of the past night came back to her. She moved her shoulder experimentally. The cast would be awkward, but she could work around it.

She opened the door and wandered down the hallway. She could hear the tv on in another room and followed it to a cozy looking living room. A woman she recognized as Emily was sitting on the leather couch knitting.

"Good morning, sleepy head," she said with a kind smile. "How are you feeling?"

Laura shrugged, feeling off balance. "Fine. Confused. Where am I?"

"Ah, let's get some food into you first, and I'll explain." Emily put down her knitting and ushered her into another room, the kitchen. There was a tiny breakfast nook that Emily sat her down at and then thrust some toast and jam in front of her. "Do you like eggs? Scrambled?"

Laura looked at her, still confused. "Sure. Is there coffee here?"

A moment later, a mug appeared in front of her, somehow warm. Laura muttered a thanks.

"Embry wanted to be here when you woke up, but he got called in to work," Emily mentioned conversationally as she started cracking a couple eggs. "This is his house in La Push."

"Work?" Laura repeated dumbly.

The older woman nodded. "He does a few shifts at night at a diner in Forks. He mans the grill. Makes a mean chicken parm, actually."

Laura nodded. There were so many things she didn't know about Embry, she realized. She didn't even know that he had an actual job. She looked around. The kitchen looked pretty utilitarian, but was obviously well used. A few copper pots hung above the nook. It didn't seem that there was a bigger dining table anywhere; Embry did live on his own, she remembered.

"Anyway, he didn't want you to wake up alone in a strange house, so I volunteered to come over for a bit. I thought it was time we had another chat anyway," Emily said. She slid a dish of scrambled eggs in front of Laura and smiled crookedly with the unscarred half of her face.

"What did you want to chat about?" It wasn't that Laura was suspicious of Sam's wife; it was just that she thought they had very different opinions.

"Well, first, we thought you might be safer staying at Embry's until this whole spat with the government blows over."

Laura put down her fork. "And no one thought to consult me about this?"

Emily smiled. "Is there a problem with staying here for a bit? Embry doesn't mind at all."

Laura tried to keep her voice from shouting. "Did he mention that my home is also my office?"

Emily pulled out a stool across from her. "Sweetie, he just wants you to be safe for now. We all do. And you two can figure things out when he gets back."

Laura fought her rising ire, especially when Emily sweetie-ed her. Sam's wife was not the right person to take her annoyance out on.

"You know that the imprint connection is stronger for him than for you, right?" Emily asked her rather suddenly, her voice carefully devoid of emotion. "It's designed so that he can sense when you are in trouble or in pain. That's how they found you last night. He knew you were in trouble, he felt your pain, and he tracked you down." She paused for a long moment. "We have never lost an imprint, even though strategically, imprints are in more danger than the average human. You have Embry's scent all over you, and that may attract vampires. We don't know what would happen to the wolf if his imprint were ever seriously harmed.

"Embry was…very anxious when you were missing. I've never seen him like that. Frantic, it was killing him. Jacob didn't want to let him reveal himself or risk giving the tribe up to rescue you. Embry fought his best friend and his leader for you, and then gave himself up for you. The least you could do is try to stay safe now."

Laura took a long swill of her coffee rather than answer, afraid of what she would say.

"Don't worry about it too much right now; you just woke up. We'll figure things out later. How are you feeling, hon? Do you want some ice?"

Too much cuddly consideration, too early in the morning, Laura decided. She shook her head to Emily's questions and tucked into her eggs. The older woman seemed to get the hint and bustled around the kitchen for a bit before returning to her knitting.

* * *

Laura had never been so glad to see Embry as she was that day. Before he came in, the living room was awkwardly quiet while Emily knitted, and Laura flipped tv channels aimlessly. She had tried to wander through the house, but felt like she was intruding too much. Instead, she was watching highlights from the baseball game last night and trying not to grit her teeth at the steady clicking on the knitting needles.

"You two look cozy."

Laura looked up at him and rolled her eyes. She had procured one of Emily's needles and was poking it between her cast and her arm to scratch at the skin. Emily was busy on her cell phone, directing one of her children in the use of antiseptic. The conversation had been going on for so long that Laura had decided it wasn't too urgent.

"We're biffles," Laura informed him drily. Emily wasn't paying attention to their conversation anyway.

Laura studied the man who had taken her in. He was wearing a pair of loose black pants and a white wifebeater. She had never seen his bare arms before, and her eyes eagerly took in his toned biceps. He cleared his throat quietly, and she realized that he had noticed her staring and blushed.

"Thanks, Em. I got it from here," he said. He guided her out the door, and she stopped talking to her kids for long enough to give them a distracted goodbye and to remind Embry about a casserole. "I know, I know. 350 for half an hour. Thanks Emily. Tell the kids I said hi."

He came back and dropped to the couch next to her with a sigh. "Sorry I've been gone. Someone called out and I had to work. So, um, welcome. This land is yours now. All that the light touches."

She smirked at the Disney reference, secretly glad that he wasn't asking how she felt. "Even the dark shadowy place?"

"Especially the dark shadowy place. I'm sure not going there," he said playfully.

She smiled and decided that this had to be sudden. Quick and clean. "Thank you. I appreciate your offer to stay here, but you know I have to go back home." He blinked in surprise and she added, "To my clinic."

"You know I can't make you stay here, and I literally can't deny you anything." He smiled to take away the bitterness of that statement. "But I would take it as a personal favor if you stayed here for the time being. There's no telling what those scientists will do once their wolf goes missing, and it won't take long for them to show up at your door. You're much safer on the reservation—we have sovereignty and the tribal council can keep them off."

She shivered a bit at the mention of the scientists that had kidnapped her. She had been doing a good job of pushing that away from her mind, but she could still see that man's cold eyes as he snapped her arm. For the first time in her life, she felt vulnerable. It was not a feeling she enjoyed.

Embry casually draped an arm around her shoulder. If it was because he felt her fear, he was smart enough to not mention it. She felt herself relax minimally. He continued, "You can work out of my living room for a week or two. No one's going to want to drive to Seattle to get a vet, and the only one in the area is overpriced. Your patients adore you; they'll deal with it. It's just a week, not that long." He paused and looked down to the carpet. "Last night you got hurt. And that was my fault. I'll find a way to make it up to you. I don't want…what happened yesterday to happen ever again."

Emily's words echoed in her mind.

She closed her eyes, and for a moment it seemed like his touch was the only thing holding her together. When she was here, she was safe.

"Alright," she said finally, quietly. "But just for a bit. Just for a week or two."

The corner of his mouth slipped upward slowly, until he was grinning at her. "Good. Good." He beamed and stood up. "I'm going to go shower, and then we'll go get your stuff. You can stay in my bedroom."

She froze. In his room with him? What did living here entail? And would she turn that down?

He popped his head back into the living room and snickered when he saw her still sitting there stiffly. "I'll sleep on the couch, of course."

She blushed. Of course. Embry wouldn't take advantage of the situation, because he was a good guy. And Laura had told him that she just wanted to be friends. Because she was stupid.

"I'll take the couch," she argued immediately.

"Nope," he called before he closed the bathroom door. "I'm the kidnapper here. You can take the bed."

Laura rolled her eyes but smiled.

* * *

They gathered Laura's things from her apartment pretty quickly. She still didn't expect to be in La Push for more than a week or two. She left a note on the door to alert her patients and then threw the bare necessities in a bag. Most of her stuff was work related. They locked up and she was moved into Embry's house in under two hours. At his suggestion, they left her car at her apartment to give the impression that she was still there.

His place wasn't totally a bachelor pad; his kitchen, at least, was outfitted well. Still, Laura knew that there were a lot of things that his house lacked. She tried not to say anything; after all, he was taking her in and she was a guest. But she also felt like she owed it to him to buy a few things to spruce the place up. Honestly, the man didn't own a toilet roll dispenser.

She finally caved and asked to borrow his car. She didn't mention what she was going for; she suspected he assumed it was for feminine products. He tossed her the keys without argument.

In the driveway, she ran into Quil. The other wolf was walking up the driveway, barefoot, no car in sight. He smiled and waved. "How ya feeling, champ?" he asked.

She grimaced at the question. "How's your shoulder feeling?" she shot back.

He grinned and rubbed the place on his shoulder where she had dropped him. "Touché. Is he home?"

She nodded and waved back towards the house. "He's inside. I'm just running out for some things."

"He's letting you use his car?" Quil looked shocked.

"He said it was ok," she answered defensively.

"No, I'm sure it is," he recovered quickly. "He just never lets anyone else drive it. I was surprised."

Laura eyed the beat up truck with suspicion now. "It works, right?"

Quil nodded quickly. "Yeah. It's not a looker, but it'll get you there." He slapped the roof of the vehicle in question lightly. "Are you driving one-handed?"

She laughed and waved her broken arm. "I can grab with this hand. It's getting better. It just itches like none other. " She opened the truck door to demonstrate its usability.

"Ah, I remember the days when my body couldn't regenerate and heal itself with supernatural speed." Quil sighed wistfully. "It must be so tough to be among the mortals."

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "Yeah well, not all of us turn into big furry monsters all the time."

"Yeah, some of us just do that once a mon—ow!"

She smiled tightly at him, having hit him with the ice scraper inside Embry's car. "Good thing you've got supernatural healing," she said sweetly. "I need to go run some errands; I'll see you later." She tossed the ice scraper back into the truck and climbed in after, giggling at his scandalized expression.

* * *

Quil watched his friend's imprint leave and invited himself into Embry's house and sat on the couch. "You got any food?" he asked in a normal tone, as if the owner of the house was right next to him.

"Go eat your own food!" Embry muttered from his bedroom. He came out later in a pair of sweatpants. "I think there's some pasta in the fridge."

"Already found it!" Quil smirked from where he was already tucking into a bowl of spaghetti. "How's the new roommate going? I see you're letting her borrow the clunker."

"My truck is not a clunker," Embry replied automatically, grabbing some leftover meatloaf. "The roommate thing is…coming along. We're still sort of stepping on each other's toes."

"You didn't tell me there was meatloaf too!" Quil stole a piece of the meat deftly. "This place smells better, at least. Like flowers…and coffee…and dude." He scrunched his nose up. "Never mind, it's not that much of an improvement."

"I don't know. It's good, but it kind of sucks." He paused and chewed thoughtfully. "It's like we're a couple living together, but we're not and I need to keep reminding myself of that. I want to kiss her sometimes, but she told me just friends, so I'm trying to respect her wishes." He paused. "Do you ever feel like a creepy old man?"

His best friend laughed and flexed an arm. "You're only as old as you feel, buddy."

Embry shook his head. He had been inside Quil's thoughts, so he knew how consciously Quil tried to suppress those thoughts and fears. Maybe it had been out of line to ask him aloud about that. He had crossed some kind of guy line.

Quil shifted restlessly and cleared his throat. "So, Jake had Collin doing some internet research on that lab. Apparently it's a little-known branch of the Washington State Bureau for Protection of Endangered Species." Embry's eyebrows shot up. "No, listen, it gets weirder. They're funded by a small stipend from the state government, but most of their money comes directly from a blank fund in the Cayman Islands. And the kid did a little digging, and traced the account to Italy. Volterra."

Embry's fist thumped onto the table. "What?"

"Yeah, I know. We're having a meeting tonight to plan, but I was on patrol with Collin." He grinned. "Anyway, the Italians have been funding this obscure part of Washington state government for almost twenty years, but the local director just got replaced by an up and coming hotshot. Martin Vlasberg. That guy with the glasses that traded you for your imprint. He's apparently why stuff's getting done there all the sudden. His predecessor retired mysteriously, and hasn't been heard from since. He's forty-four, assuming he's still among the living."

"Wouldn't assume that," Embry muttered. "Hell. What do we do about this? It's not just the government that's after us, it's those vampire snobs in Italy?"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Laura tried to adjust to her new practice out of Embry's kitchen. It was probably pretty unprofessional, but many of her patients were loyal and didn't want to drive to Seattle to see a doctor, so they came anyway. Part of her felt awkward living out of Embry's pockets, taking up so much of his generosity.

The worst part, though, was fighting her growing attraction to him when he was around almost all the time. She thought that her infatuation would dim the more she was exposed to him, but instead it seemed to only increase.

She had no choice, though. She would not be able to bear the built if she forced him into a relationship with him. Instead, she found herself furiously cleaning, fixing electronic devices, and even attempted cooking in an effort to reimburse him for taking her in.

He was just too nice, and she couldn't deal with that. Nice people made her uncomfortable, and made her want to viciously do nice things back to them.

Which was the line of reasoning that she was following when, left alone in the house, she tried to cook dinner. It was quickly turning into a disaster area. She was trying to minimize casualties before Embry got back from some pack meeting.

"Hey."

She looked up, and caught her breath. All this time, and Embry still looked too gorgeous—even after a long day. She blushed and looked around her to the chaos that had become of his kitchen. "I'm sorry, your kitchen, I just…the chicken…"

He glanced from the saucepan to the ravaged chicken on the counter to the broken tomato jar. Suddenly he threw his head back and laughed. "At least we know that chicken's really dead. And the tomato sauce too, I guess."

She scowled and threw down her knife.

"No, no, I'm just kidding," he said quickly.

"It's hard to cut meat with one hand! And these jars! They're impossible!" She took a deep breath. "I was trying to make dinner for when you came home. I'm sorry I messed up your kitchen."

He wrapped her in a hug and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Thank you for cooking for me. No one's done that in a very long time." He kept his arms around her and she struggled to control her breathing. She felt him looking around the kitchen. "I sort of feel like pizza anyway. There's a decent place down the road. I mostly love them for their sauce."

"I'm a crust girl," she informed him.

"Even crust people can appreciate a delicately balanced pomodoro sauce with just a hint of basil." He ruffled her hair and let her go.

"Woe is me. Life is so hard to be a crust person. So underappreciated," she said drily.

He wandered towards his bedroom, presumably to get changed, and called behind him, "I'll call them. And after dinner you can look at my cell phone?"

"Embry Call, stop dropping that poor phone in puddles!" she shouted back. He laughed, loudly, and she smiled.

It would take her almost an hour to realize that he had come home, made her feel better, and somehow known that she needed to feel useful.

It would take her even longer to realize that her wolf was regularly and strategically dunking his phone in the sink.

* * *

Laura seemed much happier when presented with pizza, even if she ruined it by scraping the sauce and cheese off. Embry smiled in contentment and watched his imprint devour a slice wolfishly. Her happy made him happy.

"So what happened at your meeting today?" she asked conversationally.

"What?" He was thrown off by watching her lick the sauce from her fingers and she had to repeat the question. "Oh, uh, just normal wolf stuff. Patrol schedules. Same old, same old."

She giggled at his description. "Oh, just the usual. Turning into a huge wolf, saving the world. Nothing interesting to report," she deadpanned, and smirked.

"No big," he agreed with a grin as he stole her discarded cheese. He ignored her playful gasp of indignation as he thought. The pack had spent almost two hours arguing in Sam's living room over what to do with Collin's discovery. No one had any solid ideas; even Jake was stuck for plans.

For the first time, the wolf pack had no idea how to approach an enemy, and it was freaking Embry out. Ever since he had phased, everything had been very black and white. Vampires were bad; wolves were good. They knew how to take out a vampire in the woods. It was what the wolves were born to do, and they had done it many a time. But now, they were so far out of their comfort zone that he had no idea what would happen.

Embry was a loyal member of the pack. He followed orders without question. Having no direction had set him adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

So for the moment, he was holding onto his imprint's joy like a lifeline. He liked her. He liked having her around his house, and he liked the sound of her laughter as her hand darted forward to steal his crust. He growled at her mischievously until she tossed him some more of her cheese.

She would want to know about these latest developments, he knew. But he couldn't ruin the new lighthearted dynamic that they had going between them.

Embry had failed her once already. He would protect her this time.

* * *

The playfulness had lasted about a day. Embry was starting to feel guilty about not telling Laura about the government's possible link to vampire overlords, and his guilt was gnawing at him. Worse, the pack was particularly strained lately. They were running extra patrols and on the lookout for anyone or anything unusual. That their wise alpha was unsure of what to do was making everyone frantic and jumpy: yesterday the normally-sunny Seth had yelled at Brady for not being alert enough on patrol.

This entire situation was taking a toll on everyone, but especially Embry. It had been his imprint that had been kidnapped, his imprint that had been hurt. Sometimes at night, he would have to stand outside the bedroom door and check that she was still there, safe. Other nights he would prowl restlessly through the tiny house and around the woods, making him grumpy and anxious in the morning.

He could tell his temperament was worrying Laura. She kept asking if she was invading his privacy. He had to contain a growl and kept insisting that she stay in La Push. When she left, he was afraid he might lose his mind.

* * *

Laura looked from Jake to Embry, who was standing seriously in the corner with his arms crossed over his broad chest. "Sit down. I need to hear what they said to you during the interrogation."

She eyed the chair and sat slowly, wrapping her good arm around her body. She had been trying to block that night out of her mind, and wasn't too keen on reliving it in front of either of them. "They kept asking where the wolf was. They thought I still had him somewhere."

Jake nodded and made a quick note on the pad. "What else?"

She closed her eyes and thought. All she could see was the cold, dead look in Glasses' eyes as he clutched her arm, screaming at her, his fingers tightening and digging into her skin. She shuddered. "I can't remember."

"Try."

She shook her head. "I can't." She opened her eyes and saw that Jake was holding his arm out. He was keeping Embry back, she realized when she saw him shaking.

"This is important, Laura. We need to know what they know about us. It's vital."

Her wide eyes went from Jake's stern ones to Embry's pained ones. "Why? You're not going after them, are you? You can't! "

"No, of course not," the alpha said smoothly. "We just need to know just in case. Can you think for me?"

Despite his polite phrasing, his eyes were hard, his jaw tense. This was too similar to the interrogation they had put her through. She clutched her broken arm to her chest and breathed deep, trying to stay calm. Jake and Embry were very different than the people that had kidnapped her. They wouldn't hurt her. They were just trying to help, she chanted in her head. Even so, she kept her eyes focused on the table so she wouldn't see their reactions.

"They said it was part of an ongoing investigation. They had heard that I had a wolf. Those both could have been lies; maybe they were watching my house. They didn't have a warrant, at least. They asked me about everything: my family, work, school, friends, everything. I told them whatever they wanted to know; it wasn't anything incriminating. Then they asked about Embry."

It became deathly quiet in the room. "They knew him by name?" Jake asked, practically growling.

She nodded. "They asked about him and the reservation. Said they were under investigation, but wouldn't say what for. Umm they said it was a matter of national security, but I don't believe that either. I think that was everything."

"Did they tell you who they were or what they wanted with the wolf?" he pressed.

She shook her head. "No wait, when I went back in, I overheard them say something. Something about dissections and tests."

"Is there anything else you can tell me, Laura? Anything at all?" Jake caught her gaze and pressed down with it. Something about his position as alpha, there was an aura of power about him. She instinctively wanted to obey him, wanted to please him, even as she shrunk back into the couch.

Embry growled and strode forward. "That's everything, right?"

"Yeah, that was everything. I'll let you know if I think of anything else that seems important."

"Good, we're leaving." He grabbed her shoulder and hauled her off of the couch, glaring at his leader on the way out.

* * *

"They know Embry's name, and they know La Push. They know who Laura is, and that she's somehow involved with Emb. They know something about the wolves, but it's not clear if they know who we are," Jake read his notes to his second in command, Leah. They were sitting on the hood of Jake's rabbit by First Beach. Seth was sitting on the ground carving a piece of wood.

"Let's go kill 'em," she suggested, flashing a grin at him.

"Now that is not how you got to be my right hand man," he chided her.

"Most efficient method of dealing with a problem," she argued. "Only way you know that they're not coming back for you is if they're dead."

"Not if they're humans, especially humans in the government. And I'm not too eager to start a war with the bloodsuckers right now."

"Why don't you ask the Cullens?" Seth suggested. "They're our allies, and this is kind of their area of expertise."

"I'd rather not." Jake rubbed his face.

"Well what's your plan?" the younger Clearwater asked. "It's not like you can lose anything by asking them. Who knows?"

The alpha's head dropped back onto his windshield. Things were really tense between the coven and the wolves since Jake and Nessie took a break. She had wanted to go to school, and Jake didn't want to hold her back. It was what she wanted, so he had dealt. They had never been romantic in any case; Nessie had chosen friendship, and it had kept the treaty strong. But once she left to travel the world, conditions had deteriorated. Particularly between him and that blonde mechanic.

"Cheer up. Edward's getting better," Seth said.

That was a lie.

"I guess we should get it over with sooner than later, right?"

Jake grunted in response.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Laura was having a bad day. After that conversation with the alpha Embry had driven home, silent and grumpy. He had gone for a run almost immediately, came back for barely an hour, and then said he had patrol and left. That had been last night.

One of her patients, an older woman, had driven her cat out to La Push, but not without reminding Laura that she was going through a lot of trouble for her. Laura had a pretty decent set up in the living room now; she had nearly everything that she had in the clinic. Still, the woman had looked down her nose at her makeshift setup, no doubt silently thinking many horrible thoughts about veterinarians that moved their clinics into random Native American men's houses. It had taken all of Laura's self control to finish the examination without smacking the snotty look off the cat lady's face.

When they left, she breathed a sigh of relief and nearly lunged for the coffee pot. She was just glad Embry wasn't here to witness that examination.

He came in from patrol a bit later. Laura had already cleaned up her temporary clinic and was finishing some paperwork at the breakfast bar. She had made a bit of caffeinated coffee for herself, and the decaf was already brewing for him.

"Thanks," he mumbled as he grabbed the pot. "Where did I put the…"

Laura looked up from her reports. "Sorry, I moved it to the cupboard."

He grunted as he found the sugar, putting three in his cup. Her lips quirked as she watched, but then she frowned.

Even Embry didn't seem happy nowadays. She chalked it up to having a forced imprint taking over his house, even though whenever she brought it up he vehemently insisted that she stayed there.

"Sorry," she repeated. "Are you sure you're ok with me-"

He cut her off before she finished. "Stop it. Yes, I've told you it's fine." He opened the fridge. "Didn't I put some-"

"It's heating in the oven," she said without looking up.

He found the leftover chicken he was looking for was indeed in the oven. "You know you don't have to be my housekeeper or anything. I don't need you to cook for me."

Laura raised her eyebrows. "I know that. I just put your chicken in the oven. It wasn't a big deal. I want to help out; it's the least I can do." Her lips quirked upwards. "You get all grouchy when you come in from patrol and you haven't eaten."

Something about this was disgruntling Embry. He muttered as he poked at his food.

"What's the matter with that?" she finally asked, exasperated. "Do you not like my chicken?"

He shook his head. "No, it's good. Thank you." He still seemed unhappy, and she was sick of it. "Are you happy here?" he asked.

Laura wasn't sure how to answer. She was surprised by how the question she wanted to ask him had been turned around and flung back at her. "Yes," she said finally. "I mean, I miss my apartment, and my clinic, but this is fine for now."

"You're not happy," he said flatly. "I can feel it."

Laura felt weirdly attacked by his statement. "I'm fine."

"What do you want?" he finally growled at her.

She felt backed into a corner by this demand. She knew what she wanted: him, but she couldn't tell him that. She slammed her pen down on the table. "You're such a hypocrite!" she snapped instead. "You're not happy either. What do _you_ want?"

Embry froze and his voice became very quiet. "I can't. You're the imprint. I'm supposed to be making you happy."

She shook her head. "Just tell me. What do you want?" He was probably too polite to tell her that he needed space, that she needed to find somewhere else to stay.

He looked away; his shoulders shook lightly. "Don't."

"Why? What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid to lose you," he mumbled finally. "I want you, but I know you don't want that kind of relationship. I'm…supposed to follow your lead on this. What the imprint wants." He exhaled roughly.

She stared at him in shock. He didn't meet her gaze. Laura wasn't good with words. She wasn't sure what to say. Instead she leaned over the counter and slid her hands up to his face, tenderly moving over his jaw, across his cheeks, and settling on his neck when she kissed him.

At first he remained stiff and inert as her lips moved gently over his. He jerked back a bit. "Laura," he mumbled. "Don't." His hands wrapped around her waist, but she wasn't sure if he was pushing her away from him or keeping her there.

She breathed deep, fighting the sting of rejection. "Embry, I want to be more than friends," she said finally.

His hands tightened almost painfully. "Don't you dare say that because you think it's what I want to hear. Don't you dare." His eyes burned into hers furiously, and she realized that somewhere along the line, while she was protecting Embry, she was hurting him too.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so so sorry. I really like you, Embry." Her hands moved down to his shoulders and swept across his tense muscles absentmindedly. "I didn't want to force you into anything. I didn't want our relationship to be because of this wolf thing. I…couldn't have you if it wasn't real. You mean too much to me for that."

His mouth crashed down on hers possessively. It was like he couldn't stop himself; one hand curled around the small of her back; the other tangled into her hair. She pressed herself closer to him, giving as good as she got.

"Does that feel real?" he asked when she pulled away for air. He kept her close, as if afraid she would run. The counter was cutting into her hips, but she ignored it, latching onto him.

She buried her face in his neck to hide her blush. "Yes."

"Good." His chin rested lightly on top of her head and he breathed out deeply. "Please stop trying to protect my feelings. I want you to be able to tell me anything."

She poked his side. "Right back atcha. So right now, my stomach's starting to hurt, and you kind of smell."

He released her with a grunt of surprise, and she fell back over the counter to her seat. She rubbed her gut with a small smile. "But really, this is a two way street," she said. "You can tell me anything." She reached across and grabbed his hand.

Embry smiled distractedly. "Of course."

She blinked. Was he hiding something else?

He pulled her hand up and kissed it, and she simultaneously blushed and rolled her eyes. Maybe she had imagined it. Laura wasn't about to ruin such an amazing thing so soon.

* * *

The coven had returned, at Jake's request. Nessie wasn't here; she was in Greece perfecting her ancient Latin. Jake was a little hurt by that, and the fact that he hadn't seen her in over a year, but he hid it well as he faced Carlisle at the boundary line. He parents were also absent, but Jake was more thankful than anything about not having to deal with that mind-reading leach. "How can we help you, Jacob?"

Jake squared his shoulders, meeting Carlisle leader-to-leader. The rest of the pack was phased behind him, facing off against their allies. "One of our own was kidnapped by a couple of government agents a week ago. Turns out they're being funded from Volterra. Do you know anything about this?"

The bloodsuckers glanced at one another warily. "No. The Volturi should have no business interfering in your affairs."

"What I want to know is how those demons know we exist." The wolf's voice was quiet and deadly.

Carlisle spread his arms appeasingly. "We don't remain in contact with them. None of our friends know of your existence. It is possible that they have known about you since Nessie's birth, and that this is the first they have acted upon it."

Jake didn't like the sound of that. If they had known about La Push for nearly two decades, who else could know about them? "What would you suggest?" he asked finally, quietly.

Some of the vamps behind Carlisle smirked. Particularly that blonde one. Carlisle remained silent for a moment, pensive. "Jasper?"

The bloodsucker stepped forward. "It is strategically disadvantageous to attack them in Volterra. They have a very secure domain and your pack would be outnumbered. Further, you have no acknowledgment from them that the two parties are in conflict. I would suggest taking out the third party as a show of aggression." He stepped back smartly. His wife, the short one, smiled and took his hand.

The alpha had to sort through the jargon to get to his meaning. "You think we should go after the government facility instead?"

Jasper shrugged. "They're less prepared than the Volturi would be."

Jake shook his head angrily. "We can't. They're humans. We don't hurt humans."

"Maybe you don't need to kill them," Carlisle suggested. "Find out if you can blackmail them about accepting the money."

Jake nodded. "Thank you for your help," he said briskly.

"Black," one of the other vamps called as he turned away. "Nessie sends her regards."

He stiffened and nodded, then left, the wolves following silently. He did not stay to see Carlisle frowning thoughtfully in their direction.

"Just blackmail the government; that'll be easy," Leah mocked later when they were safely away from the border, sitting on Paul and Rachel's porch.

"Ok, I want everyone to stay on the rez unless they have permission to leave." Jake paused to look at Embry and Quil, whose imprints had family off the reservation. "We're keeping up the extra patrol notice just in case. Collin and Brady, you guys are in charge of figuring out as much as possible about that facility. I'll meet with the Tribal Council and let them know what's going on. They might be able to do something about people entering town. Any questions?"

* * *

Laura was reading in Embry's living room when she saw him walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" She only meant it as an innocent question. She didn't think that he was working or on patrol tonight. She had sort of planned a movie night for the two of them, but they had been spending a lot of time together lately, after their talk in the kitchen yesterday. She fought a blush thinking about the last few days.

He turned at her question. "Quil's." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

Laura nodded slowly. He was lying. "Ok then. Have fun." She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"Do you want me to stay?" he asked to the floor, sounding guilty.

"No, go ahead." She waved her book. "It'll probably be a quiet night here anyway."

He paused for a long moment with his hand on the door. Then he rushed to her and kissed the side of her mouth. "I'll be back late tonight. Don't wait for me."

She slumped down once he shut the door. He was lying. He lied to her. And then he left.

She pushed down the paranoia that he had tired of the imprint, that he was off to cheat on her. She refused to be a distrustful, clingy girlfriend that fell to pieces the minute her boyfriend left her. She was strong.

But the hot betrayal of his lie still cut deeply. What if he had other secrets that she didn't know about? Something worse than being a shapeshifter? Her mind flew over the possibilities: felon, murderer, member of a cult…? What could be worse than being a werewolf that he couldn't tell her?

She pushed her book away. This wasn't happening tonight.

She wished she could call one of her friends, and dish about this. She briefly considered Kim or Claire. But no, there were no secrets in this group. If they knew, their boyfriends would know. Embry would know. And that was a confrontation she was wholly unprepared for.

Instead she pulled out a bottle of liquor that was stashed in the back of the cupboard and poured herself a glass. She settled in to wait on the couch.

* * *

Embry and the pack were waiting outside the government facility. After much debate, they had decided to just break in, and look around. See if they could find any proof worthy of blackmail. Jake wanted their financial records detailing the financial donations from Italy, or a security video of Laura's interrogation, or anything else that looked fishy. Sam and Jared, as two of the oldest, had stayed back home to run patrols, just in case.

The pack was all in human form, pacing restlessly around. This was not their normal order of things, and they were hiding their nervousness with false bravado. Embry was still throbbing with shame from lying to Laura about where he would be. He didn't want her to feel guilty or worried about them doing this. It wasn't her fault, but he knew she would think it was.

Suddenly Paul snapped up. "Do you smell that?"

It was vampire, faint but still there. They had been there, and it was clear that they were gone now.

Collin broke into the front door, using the code Laura had given them. That should have been the first bad sign.

They crept through the hallways. Jake flagged off wolves to check the offices off of the main hallway. Embry had a bad feeling about this. He was towards the back of the pack, and wasn't about to admit being nervous, though. He was one of the first to pick up the clear stink of…

Up ahead, Collin let out a roar of surprise.

The tight confines were difficult for the surprised werewolves. Collin and Paul couldn't phase in time.

There were five of vampires. It was an ambush.

Embry phased and leapt into the fray, practically mad with rage. These monsters had terrorized his imprint and threatened his brothers. He would rip them to shreds.


End file.
